FERC on Thursday granted Helix Ravenswood a limited waiver of the three-year limit under NYISO’s Tariff to retain its capacity resource interconnection service (CRIS) rights for deactivated generation facilities in New York City (ER20-323).

The commission’s order gives the company until Dec. 31, 2022, to transfer 129 MW of its existing CRIS rights from its deactivated gas turbine facilities to its proposed energy storage resources on the same site.

The state’s Public Service Commission in October approved construction of what will be New York’s largest battery storage facility, the 316-MW Ravenswood facility to be built on the Ravenswood Generating Station property in Long Island City, Queens (19-E-0122). (See “Largest Storage Project in New York,” NYPSC Projects Lower Winter Energy Prices.)

The storage facility will displace some out-of-service peaker units on the property and will provide peak capacity, energy and ancillary services; offset more carbon-intensive peak generation with power stored during the off-peak period; and enhance grid reliability in New York City.

NYISO neither opposed nor supported the waiver request but did suggest alternate paths for Ravenswood to obtain CRIS status. For example, the ISO asserted that the company could request CRIS rights in the 2019 class year study, of which the storage project is already a member.

Ravenswood has already submitted a CRIS request for such an evaluation in the current class year study, according to the ISO.

In the order, the commission rebuffed Ravenswood’s request to extend the requested waiver beyond Dec. 21, 2022, should the replacement project not be completed by that date, ruling that the request was not limited enough in scope.

— Michael Kuser