The NYISO Management Committee on Oct. 31 passed the draft Reliability Needs Assessment and recommended that the Board of Directors approve it at its next meeting.
The assessment has identified a reliability need in New York City starting in summer 2033 and “continues to demonstrate a very concerning decline in statewide resources margins such that by 2034 no surplus power would remain without further resource development,” according to the executive summary.
The committee passed the assessment unanimously via secret, emailed ballot. Some stakeholders abstained from the motion, according to the final writeup of the results.
The New York City need is driven by increased peak demand, limited additional supply and the assumed retirement of the New York Power Authority’s small gas plants based on compliance with state climate legislation, NYISO found. Additional generators were also assumed to be unavailable because of the Department of Environmental Conservation’s peaker rule.
Consolidated Edison, the transmission owner and local utility, also identified reliability violations in the 138-kV Greenwood transmission load area, but because these reliability violations occur on the non-bulk power transmission facilities, they are not actionable under NYISO’s assessment. The ISO wrote that these issues are being brought up so that developers can address both needs holistically.
NYISO was facing a statewide reliability need until it revised some of the incoming large loads, representing about 1,200 MW of cryptocurrency miners and hydrogen plants, to be “flexible.” (See NYISO: Large Load Flexibility Eliminates 2034 Shortfall Concern.)
Stakeholders raised concerns about this finding similar to those in prior meetings.
“There’s no requirement that’s imposed on these [crypto miners]. There’s no certification from a CEO, as we have in many other instances. There’s no filings. There’s no commitments. There’s nothing in writing at all. It’s simply that we don’t think they’re going to be there” said Kevin Lang, representing New York City. “If Bitcoin goes through the roof, and now it’s cost-justified to be running those cryptocurrency mining operations 24/7, what is going to prevent them from doing that? Nothing.”
Lang went on to say that he knew this wasn’t going to change how the RNA would go, or how the vote would go, but that he wanted to register a large concern. He wasn’t the only stakeholder to voice this concern. Others mentioned the potential for cryptocurrency miners to pivot to AI.
“Yes, we are making an assumption here,” NYISO’s Zach Smith said. “We think it’s based on a good amount of information that we’ve gotten directly from these loads. … Without question this is an assumption we’re going to continue to revisit time and time again.”
Other Committee Actions
National Grid’s Transmission Control Center director, Matthew Antonio, was elected vice chair of the committee.
The committee also unanimously passed a motion to ask the board to approve the proposed $1.306/MWh Rate Schedule 1 for the 2025 budget year. The recommendations include a 2025 revenue requirement of $202 million. The committee further recommended that spending underruns and overcollections of RS1 be used to pay down debt or reduce anticipated debt.