The New York Power Authority on Dec. 23 filed a petition with the Public Service Commission asking it to designate Clean Path NY as a Priority Transmission Project (PTP) under the Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act.
The $11 billion Clean Path’s renewable energy certificate between the developers and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority was terminated in November. (See $11B Transmission + Generation Plan Canceled in NY.) The project is a public-private collaboration of NYPA and Forward Power, which is a joint venture of energyRe and Invenergy.
It would consist of 178 miles of HVDC line between Delaware County and Queens to bring 3.8 GW from 23 new solar and onshore wind projects to New York City. The line is engineered to be bidirectional so that offshore wind could serve upstate load when needed.
The November announcement led many to assume the project was effectively dead. But “it’s important to remember that a NYSERDA contract cancellation does not equal a project cancellation,” wrote Marguerite Wells, president of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York. “As we saw with many clean energy generation projects over the last couple of years, developers continued advancing projects after a contract cancellation, and many of them have since secured new contracts. This filing shows that the idea and development of Clean Path continues.”
PTPs are projects deemed necessary on an “expeditious” basis to access and deliver renewable energy resources, and they are referred to NYPA exclusively for development.
“Expedited development of the Clean Path transmission project is critical to advancing the state’s achievement of the aggressive” mandates of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), NYPA wrote in its petition.
But PTP designation would not save the entire project. The NYSERDA contract included the 23 new renewable facilities.
“Our proposal would accelerate development and address the state’s need to transmit upstate renewable energy directly into New York City, reducing congestion to support the decarbonization of the electric system in line with the state’s climate goals,” NYPA spokesperson Lindsay Kryzak said in a statement. “NYPA awaits a decision on its petition by the PSC.”
NYPA estimated the project would reduce emissions and produce cost savings to ratepayers both in terms of capacity payments and congestion payments to the tune of about $6.2 billion over 23 years. This would help the state meet its climate goals by increasing the availability of renewable energy downstate while bypassing the relatively slow project planning processes of NYISO and the PSC, it said. It also argued a new project would not be selected until mid-2027 at the earliest, delaying the in-service date until after 2030.
NYPA estimated it can complete the project before 2030 if the petition is approved. It cited many planning and interconnection hurdles that are finished or well in progress, including federal applications, NYISO interconnection studies and pre-secured fabrication slots with cable manufacturers.
It also cited NYISO’s most recent Reliability Needs Assessment that found a reliability need in New York City starting in 2033. Furthermore, NYISO estimates that by 2030 the system will transition from a summer peak to a winter peak.
The Champlain Hudson Power Express line, which will inject hydropower from Quebec to the city, should be in-service by then but is not obligated to deliver capacity to New York during the winter. 2030 also is the deadline for meeting some of the emissions targets of the CLCPA.