NY Public Service Commission approves environmental review of energy storage roadmap
The New York State Public Service Commission (NYSPSC) approved its environmental review of New York’s Energy Storage Roadmap and expanded the types of renewable energy systems that are eligible for compensation.
The state’s Energy Storage Roadmap outlines the policy, regulatory, and programmatic actions necessary to achieve the state’s goal of having 1,500 megawatts (MW) of energy storage by 2025 — the equivalent electricity demand of one-fifth of all New York homes.
In its environmental review of the roadmap, the commission found several positive environmental impacts related to reductions in peak load demand during critical periods, increases in the overall efficiency of the grid, and/or displacement of fossil fuel-based generation. These will lead to positive public outcomes, including economic, health and environmental benefits. Specifically, it will create approximately 30,000 jobs associated with energy storage research and development and mitigate the effects of climate change with about 2 million metric tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions avoided.
Further, the review found that adverse direct environmental impacts of the roadmap are likely to be minimal with a variety of mitigation measures proposed to minimize such effects.
“Energy storage is not only crucial to achieving our goal of 50 percent renewable energy by 2030, it will improve the resiliency of the grid as we face extreme weather events and other emergency situations,” NYSPSC Commission Chair John Rhodes said. “With this step, we continue to advance the deployment of energy storage, in line with the target of 1,500 MW deployed by 2025.”
The commission also expanded the types of clean, renewable energy systems that are eligible for compensation based on the benefits they generate.
In 2017, the commission adopted a policy to compensate the owners of solar projects for the value the solar systems provide. This began the transition to compensation for methodologies that enable a distributed, transactive, and integrated electric system.
With this new expansion, all stand-alone storage systems including regenerative braking, with a rated capacity of 5 MW or less, will now be eligible to receive compensation. Further, tidal energy generators, biomass generators and certain food-waste digestion configurations that meet the CES requirements will now be eligible for compensation.
Extending the “value stack compensation” to other clean generators and storage will result in more appropriate and accurate compensation for those resources as well. Compensation will be provided through bill credits. This compensation program will not impact ratepayers as the bill credits are roughly the same as the cost reductions for the utilities.
“New York’s Clean Energy Standard laid the groundwork to create enough renewable energy to meet half of the State’s electricity needs by 2030,” Rhodes said. “Energy efficiency and clean, locally produced power are central to a modern, reliable and efficient energy system. To sustain our progress, we must continue to reward utilities and energy developers for investment decisions based on the full value that all kinds of renewable energy facilities provide to our electric system.”
