The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the New York State Department of Public Service have submitted for review a plan aimed at facilitating the state’s goal of deploying as much as 6 gigawatts (GW) of energy storage by 2030.
The plan, New York’s 6 GW Energy Storage Roadmap: Policy Options for Continued Growth in Energy Storage, was submitted to the New York Public Service Commission and, if approved, would serve as a roadmap for the implementation of NYSERDA-led programs aimed at procuring an additional 4.7 gigawatts of new storage projects across the wholesale, retail, and residential energy storage sectors.
Those procurements, combined with 1.3 gigawatts of existing energy storage already under contract and moving towards commercial operation, would allow New York to reach the 6-GW goal, which represents at least 20 percent of the state’s peak electricity load.
The agencies estimate that the total cost of procuring up to 4,700 MW of energy storage is expected to be between $1 billion to $1.7 billion over 22 years, equal to an estimated increase in customer electric bills of 0.32 percent to 0.54 percent or $0.34 to $0.58 per month for the average residential customer.
The plan also aims to support New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act goals to generate 70 percent of the state's electricity from renewable sources by 2030 and to reach 100 percent zero-emission electricity by 2040 while bolstering grid reliability and customer resilience.
NYSERDA estimates the plan would reduce projected future statewide electric system costs by nearly $2 billion and improve public health because of reduced exposure to harmful fossil fuel pollutants.
NYSERDA and the state’s Department of Public Service are considered approaches to energy storage development that would help eliminate the state's most polluting fossil fuel power plants, as proposed by Governor Katy Hochul in her 2022 State of the State address.
At least 35 percent of the proposed plan’s funding would be earmarked to support projects that deliver benefits to disadvantaged communities and would be used to target fossil fuel peaking plant emission reductions with carve-outs for projects in the downstate region where there is a high concentration of disadvantaged communities and peaking plants.
Specifically, the plan calls for 3,000 megawatts (MW) of new bulk energy storage to be procured through a new competitive Index Storage Credit mechanism, a new, centralized procurement mechanism for bulk storage projects that is similar to the Index Renewable Energy Credit mechanism NYSERDA uses to procure Tier 1 onshore and offshore wind renewable energy certificates (RECs).
The plan also calls for 1,500 MW of new retail storage and 200 MW of new residential storage that would be supported by an expansion of NYSERDA's existing region specific block incentive programs.
And the plan would require electric utilities in the state to study the potential of high-value energy storage projects in providing cost-effective transmission and distribution services not currently available through existing markets.
The new plan revises and expands a storage plan released by NYSERDA and the Department of Public Service in 2018 that called for incentives to help deploy 1,500 MW of energy storage by 2025.
