ALBANY, N.Y. — The New York Power Authority should do more with its new ability to develop renewable power, clean energy advocates say.
NYPA in October issued a draft strategic plan to develop or partner on development of 40 new solar, wind and storage projects totaling 3.5 GW of capacity, and said the early stage projects among this first tranche likely would experience an 80 to 85% attrition rate. (See NYPA Enters Renewable Development with 3.5-GW Plan.)
Advocates who fought for years to secure the new powers of development have been disappointed. They want a 15-GW road map with less attrition. They have been mounting a campaign to sway public opinion and are speaking out at hearings as NYPA conducts a statewide listening tour before finalizing its strategic plan.
The final plan must be delivered to the governor and Legislature by Jan. 31, 2025.
Public Power NY plans a demonstration outside a Nov. 20 hearing in Manhattan, and members of the coalition spoke at a Nov. 18 hearing in Albany.
Public Power NY Co-Chair Patrick Robbins remarked about the recent wildfires in the Hudson Valley — a region whose woodlands usually see abundant rainfall but now are experiencing an extended drought and a wave of fires, which are rare in living memory.
“In a few months, we’re looking at a reactionary federal administration,” Robbins said. “We need the New York Power Authority to come up with a plan that meets this moment.
“The plan contains just over 3 GW of renewable energy capacity when we know that NYPA would need to build five times this amount in order for New York to meet our legally mandated renewable energy electricity targets.”
Mark Schaeffer is a longtime advocate who helped push for the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act — the CLCPA, the landmark 2019 law that codified many of the carbon-reduction targets the state now is trying to meet.
He keyed in on one word in the law’s title: “I emphasize the word ‘leadership’ because the state must lead,” he said. “This is an affluent, progressive state in a wealthy country disproportionately responsible for greenhouse gases, and the federal government has now become part of the problem.”
State Assemblywoman Sarahana Shrestha (D), whose Hudson Valley district includes areas affected by wildfires, floods and other problems blamed on climate change, also called for NYPA to aim higher — at least 15 GW.
The state has been relying on private sector development to reach its renewable development goals and has seen extensive attrition due to local and global cost escalation, delays and New York’s cumbersome regulatory and permitting processes.
The state now projects 43% renewable energy by 2030, Shresta said — far short of the 70% mandate in the CLCPA. (See NY Expects to Miss 2030 Renewable Energy Target.)
“NYPA was supposed to fix this,” she said to audience applause. “Only a public entity like NYPA can absorb the risks and costs that would help smaller projects go online — projects that may not make a profit but greatly help to meet people’s needs.”
This is at the center of the vision behind the Build Public Renewables Act, the measure that empowered NYPA to take a role in development: Democratize electric power, cut out the profit motive, push fossil fuels out of the picture and let the people of New York enjoy the ecological and financial rewards.
But the enabling legislation also directed NYPA to take on added costs: expand its workforce training efforts, retire its gas-fired peakers and help fund a new utility bill rebate for low-income New Yorkers.
The law did not change the fact that New York is one of the slowest and most expensive states to build electric infrastructure and has a strong home-rule tradition that can delay or kill projects.
Two stalwart renewable energy supporters representing the Capital Region in the state Assembly, Democrats Patricia Fahy and John McDonald, both voiced support for NYPA and for its expanded mission at the hearing. But both also raised a warning about costs.
“Let’s be clear — and unfortunately, the recent elections demonstrate that — there are concerns [among] the public with [regard] to affordability, which should not be lost on anybody,” McDonald said.
Clean, sustainable, reliable, resilient and affordable are the guiding principles, he added. “Sounds easy, but it is not. But I am confident.”
If a strong vision by the state’s leaders and hard work by the state government managers were all that mattered, the state might be much closer to its clean-energy goals, and it might not have to create a new mission for the power authority Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into existence in 1931.
But a slow interconnection queue, a long review process, local opposition and global macroeconomic factors have caused a high rate of attrition in proposed or contracted projects.
NYISO’s 2024 Load & Capacity Data Report offers a sobering view: After a decade of promoting solar and wind power development, New York ended 2023 with 255 MW of solar and 2,454 MW of wind capacity installed in front of the meter out of a total statewide capability ranging by season from 37.4 to 39.7 GW.
Further, front-of-meter solar and wind respectively contributed just 230 and 4,893 GWh of the state’s 124,153 GWh net energy production in 2023.
(Distributed solar is faring better in New York, surpassing 6 GW installed capacity in October, but it, too, has a low capacity factor.)
‘Learning Curve’
So the advocates are right: New York has a long way to go in its clean energy transition.
In 2023, NYPA created a new position to lead the new role it was given — vice president of renewable project development — and appointed Vennela Yadhati to the role. (See NYPA Names Exec to Head New Renewable Development Effort.)
She has been opening NYPA’s hearings with an overview of the draft plan and the larger picture it would fit into. She does not take questions or respond to comments, as it is a listening tour rather than a discussion, but she spoke to NetZero Insider about some of the concerns raised.
The 2023 law expanding NYPA’s role — which was opposed by private-sector developers — does not shift the task of decarbonizing New York’s grid from the private sector to the public sector, Yadhati said. Rather, it adds NYPA as another piece of the solution.
“We do realize our position to be now one of the several hundreds of players in a very mature market,” she said. “So that’s where we have a learning curve. But we’re learning from our partners as we develop this.”
She added: “The legislation does not have a minimum threshold or anything for the capacity or time frame goal that we need to be hitting. It is for NYPA to participate and continue to support the state’s goals, as we have been doing.”
Yadhati pushed back on the suggestion that NYPA — an entity under state control but self-funded separately from the state budget — has extensive access to cheap capital to build 15 GW of renewables at low cost thanks to its high bond rating.
NYPA’s strong rating is based on it choosing its projects carefully, she said. “That’s where our approach needs to be very balanced and very strategic.”
NYPA does have a history of achievement: It is the largest state entity of its kind, it operates more than 1,550 circuit-miles of transmission, it built some of the nation’s largest hydropower and pumped hydro storage plants, and it built one of the state’s nuclear power plants.
The draft renewables plan calls for 10 solar projects totaling 200 MW that NYPA would develop on its own and 30 solar, storage and wind projects totaling 3.2 GW that NYPA would partner with private developers to build.
This first tranche does seem modest, particularly given the 80 to 85% attrition rate expected for early-stage proposals and the 30 to 60% rate projected for more mature proposals.
But it is only the first tranche, Yadhati said.
