By William Opalka

With transmission bottlenecks and aging and unprofitable legacy generation, New York presents a host of challenges for any experienced energy executive, let alone a newcomer. But a path-breaking initiative to transform the state’s power business that has the whole nation watching and an established wholesale market proved an irresistible combination for Bradley Jones.

“This is a fantastic opportunity,” Jones, who took over as president of NYISO in October, told RTO Insider last week. “It’s a great state, it’s a great market and I’ve enjoyed Albany quite a bit. It’s a wonderful opportunity and it’s the right place for me.”

‘The One I Wanted’

Jones, 53, came to New York from ERCOT, where he was senior vice president and chief operating officer — presumably in line to contend for the top spot next year, when current CEO H.B. “Trip” Doggett retires.

In August, however, ERCOT named General Counsel Bill Magness as Doggett’s successor. Thus, after spending his entire, near-three-decade professional life in the Southwest, Jones moved cross country to replace the retiring Stephen C. Whitley, who headed New York’s power grid for seven years. (See New NYISO Head Brings Broad Experience.)

“I did have many opportunities, but this is the one I wanted,” he said. “One of the things is the market changes I was trying to make happen at ERCOT I have found that New York had already done.”

One of those is NYISO’s look-ahead capability, which allows its operators to identify upcoming changes in conditions, such as equipment outages or changes in renewable energy output, and prepare the system to most efficiently respond.

“I was amazed to find that NYISO already had that in place and had already been applying those tools,” Jones said.

Adding Transmission

Jones has extensive experience in what New York policymakers want — namely building infrastructure and integrating wind. “I hope my experience at ERCOT will show how to manage these things,” he said. “My three initiatives, without joking, have always been transmission, transmission, transmission.”

He said he was amazed that the ISO has had to curtail low-cost hydroelectricity because of the lack of transmission to move it west to east. But he’s encouraged by the New York Public Service Commission’s recent initiative to eliminate bottlenecks for downstate load centers.

The PSC is expected to vote this month on two transmission projects totaling an estimated $1.2 billion. The proposed routes would satisfy Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Energy Highway goal to bring 1,000 MW of power generated upstate to areas of high demand in southeastern New York and New York City. (See NYPSC Staff Recommends $1.2B in Transmission Projects.)

There are also transmission proposals to access wind resources in northern New York to help the state meet Cuomo’s goal of 50% renewable electricity by 2030. “We can increase wind or renewables capacity by 50%, somewhere around 17.5 million MWh a year, from west and north to the rest of the state,” Jones said.

Jones said the state’s Reforming the Energy Vision will mostly affect change at the distribution network. “We expect we will be able to develop very quickly a platform for how that will work. We will be able to interconnect very quickly,” he said.

Strategic Plan

On Monday, NYISO released its 2016-2020 Strategic Plan.

The plan addresses several trends:

• Gas-electric coordination: “The reliability of the bulk power system is increasingly linked to the performance of the natural gas pipeline infrastructure, raising reliability concerns related to fuel delivery during periods of peak demand.” The plan vows to improve coordination with the gas industry and develop market designs that promote fuel assurance among generators.
• Integration of distributed energy resources: The plan anticipates that DER will grow due to improving economics and public policies, influencing the design of the grid. “The NYISO will work to integrate such resources into its markets in a manner that enhances system efficiencies through increased demand elasticity while deploying new planning and operational tools to ensure visibility into system conditions and future needs as distributed energy resources proliferate.”
• Federal and state policies: The ISO’s markets and planning functions will have to respond with more complex market designs to accommodate the growing role of renewables and DER under the EPA Clean Power Plan and the New York State Energy Plan.

Shaking Hands with 500

Jones said he will implement the plan by engaging every employee. He started on his first day, standing at the entrance of a welcome barbeque to shake everyone’s hand. NYISO employs more than 500.

[Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article mistakenly suggested that ERCOT had not yet chosen a successor for retiring CEO H.B. “Trip” Doggett.]