RENSSELAER, N.Y. — Following the intense discussions of the reliability planning process reforms earlier in March, NYISO’s Electrical System Planning Working Group/Transmission Planning Advisory Subcommittee discussed modest updates to several ongoing projects at its March 9 meeting.

Incremental tariff revisions to the cluster study enhancements project are intended to improve the interconnection process by reducing the administrative burden on applicants, said Thinh Nguyen, senior manager of interconnection projects. The overall goal is to decrease disputes and withdrawals from the interconnection queue.

NYISO later presented the most recent update to the 2025-2044 System and Resource Outlook study. The final report is due the second quarter of 2026 and forecasts system conditions over 20 years. Preliminary results, posted in January 2026, found increased load growth and generation in New York with less reliance on imports. NYISO also asked stakeholders for feedback on potential sensitivity cases.

Stakeholders asked for more clarification on how NYISO arrived at its assumptions for nuclear capacity in the study and questioned if the scenario, which predicts several gigawatts of new nuclear in the capital region, was accurate. Stakeholders said most of the interest in nuclear has been concentrated in the northern part of the state near Oswego. They were also uncertain if the ISO’s assumptions for downstate hydrogen production were realistic.

Sarah Carkner, NYISO manager for long term assessments, said the notion new nuclear capacity could come online by 2038 was based on publicly available data for lead times and that 12 years seemed to be the soonest.

Lastly, NYISO presented a modification to its FERC Order 1920 compliance. Instead of the previously proposed timeline that would have created four to five year gaps in the rollout of System and Resource Outlook Studies, NYISO will perform the study every three years and have it align with New York’s coordinated grid planning process.