New York clean power limited by transmission: NYISO

New York will require significant transmission upgrades if it expects to meet its aggressive renewable energy goals, the state's grid operator says.

New York will require transmission upgrades in "multiple areas" to ensure renewable energy can be delivered throughout its borders, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) said yesterday in a report to the state's Climate Action Council.

The grid operator found that the transmission network at present would be an obstacle toward meeting the state's mandates to get 70pc of its electricity from renewables by 2030 and 100pc from zero-emissions sources by 2040, explaining that upgrades would prevent a "significant curtailment" of resources such as wind and solar.

The issues stem from the disparity between the upstate and downstate regions in terms of carbon-free resources. In the former, 88pc of generation comes from zero-emissions sources like nuclear, hydropower and wind. In contrast, only 29pc of the generation downstate — which includes high load areas like New York City — comes from carbon-free sources.

Complicating matters, many of the state's peaking plants will retire beginning in 2023 due to new restrictions on the level of NOx emissions permitted from simple-cycle natural gas-fired combustion turbines. The state is also planning to bring peaker plants, which also use oil as fuel, under its Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative CO2 limits. The generators are only dispatched during times of high demand, like summer days, and tend to be less efficient than larger units.

As the state increase its reliance on renewables, it will need avenues to deliver power from the upstate area to the heavy demand of customers residing downstate. Additionally, New York will have to solve transmission constraints bringing offshore wind to land, with the state targeting 9,000MW of ocean-based capacity by 2035.

Regulators have already started addressing the geographical inequality in the zero-emissions generation, introducing Tier 4 renewable energy certificates (RECs) to the state's clean energy standard to track resources like wind and solar delivered to New York City.

To compensate for the loss of dispatchable generation and the intermittency of renewables, NYISO is also recommending fast-ramping projects and more reserve resources. These would supplement the grid operator's plan [to introduce]((https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2113346) a carbon price in the capacity markets to incentivize clean power.

"We must remember the degree to which system reliability, economic efficiency and environmental efficiency are interlinked," NYISO chief executive Rich Dewey said. "These attributes can and must coexist in support of our power system, economy, and consumer interests."

The NYISO report is intended to help inform the deliberations of the 22-member council, created by lawmakers last year to plan how New York will slash its GHG emissions by at least 85pc from 1990 levels by 2050.

By Patrick Zemanek