Transmission alternatives
Rochester town supervisor Carl Chipman, who chaired the meeting, spoke of numerous municipalities that have passed resolutions opposing creation of the NCZ, which the FERC approved last August without public input. Congressmen Chris Gibson and Sean Patrick Maloney and U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer are all lobbying against it.
In its comments to FERC, the PSC has argued not only that rates could skyrocket under the new zone, but that, given the state’s proposal to upgrade aging transmission lines, thereby eliminating the bottleneck, the zone is unnecessary. The PSC also argues that the geographic area of the NCZ, which extends as far north as Greene County and west to Sullivan County (where annual per-capita residential consumption is 13 percent of Westchester’s), is arbitrary.
The boundaries of the NCZ follow the customer base of the utilities, including Central Hudson-Fortis, which also opposes the NCZ. “Central Hudson will continue to fight against the new capacity zone on behalf of customers,” said the utility in a prepared statement.
The PSC is currently considering four proposals to upgrade the aging transmission lines. At the meeting, representatives from two of the four proposing companies, Boundless Energy and New York Transco, provided an overview of their projects.
John Dodson, principal and executive principal of development at Boundless Energy, said that Boundless Energy plans to provide more transmission by replacing the electrical line from the West Hurley substation to the Roseton plant in Orange County. “This takes a weak line and makes it stronger,” he said.
The other proposals plan instead to build a new line on the stressed and most heavily used line from the Leeds substation in Greene County to Pleasant Valley in Dutchess County, replacing the existing wires with a more efficient carbon-fiber line that would utilize the existing towers. Dodson claimed this would take a year to complete, costing about $270 million compared to nearly $1 billion for the competing Transco proposal.
New York Transco, a public-private partner representing Central Hudson-Fortis, Con Edison, National Grid and the other utilities that own the state’s transmission lines, proposes a new transmission line along its existing right-of-way from Marcy, near Utica, to Pleasant Valley. Kevin Cushing, stakeholder manager at National Grid, said that Transco plans to replace the existing towers along its 153-mile right-of-way and construct three new substations. The new lines would deliver 1200 to 1500 MW of power downstate, potentially boosting economic development by providing enough electricity for power-thirsty high-tech plants looking to locate in the area.
Cushing said the new towers would be 130 feet tall, significantly larger than the existing ones, which are 80 to 85 feet tall.
What about the timing of the transmission upgrades? James Denn, director of public affairs for the PSC, said his agency had asked in January for more ideas about the transmission upgrades from the prospective developers. That proceeding is still in the early stages, with no deadlines yet established.
Concerns about supply
Thomas Rumsey, vice president of external affairs for the New York Independent System Operator (ISO), the not-for-profit agency that operates the grid and oversees the state’s electricity markets, said despite a decline in demand in 2008, the first since the Great Depression, excess power generation upstate has evaporated as plants have been retired. While the subsequent reduction in coal-burning has resulted in much cleaner power generation, with dramatic reductions in carbon emissions, it’s also contributed to the current capacity crunch.
To provide capacity, Rumsey said, four of the currently retired power plants now plan to power up by 2018. One is Danskammer, the former coal-burning plant in the Town of Newburgh that proposes to re-power using natural gas. Filed last April, the ISO response rejected the phase-in of the plan. The ISO is asking FERC to reconsider.
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s “Energy Highway Blueprint,” unveiled in 2012, requires the upgrade to the A.C. (alternating current) transmission lines to bring at least 1000 MW of additional power to southeastern New York. Rumsey said the actual gap in deliverability of electricity was 1600 MW. ISO predicts that capacity needs will grow 200 MW a year.
“People have to understand how tight it is,” Rumsey said. The “demand response” was so high for five days in a row last summer that the ISO had to ask some large energy customers to cut down on their usage, he said. Once additional power generation comes on line, Rumsey predicted, “capacity prices will be lower than today,” he said. Denn added that the congestion costs the state taxpayers $600 million a year.
Transforming energy sourcing
Manna Jo Greene, environmental director for Hudson Sloop Clearwater who also is a member of the Hudson Valley Smart Growth Alliance and Hudson Valley Sustainable Energy Alliance, asked what the state was doing to create incentives renewals and efficiency programs. She noted that the four power plants coming on line would all utilize fossil fuels. The environment will be degraded, she predicted, and electricity rates would still continue to rise.
The state has invested “billions” in efficiency and incentives for renewables, Denn responded, but solar energy doesn’t meet the peak demand needs of the market because the energy it generates can’t be stored. Its cost is another problem, added Rumsey.
Rumsey said the NYISO, which receives the bids from electricity generators in an auction that occurs every six seconds, purchases 98 percent of the wind power generated in the state, more than any other state does. Wind currently accounts for two percent of the state’s electricity supply, but because of the bottleneck the green power can’t be routed to New York City.
Since September, Denn said, the PSC has begun looking at “concepts such as distributed generation, micro grids, and how the consumer can shape the demand and energy usage.” It’s seeking how to encourage renewables, to mitigate peak demand, and to encourage consumers to be more efficient.
Metzger noted CLP support for a bill introduced by local state assemblyman Kevin Cahill that would enable municipalities to aggregate ratepayers and source their power directly. If passed, the Cahill-sponsored bill “would really transform the ability of local communities to implement real targeted demand-reduction strategies and finance clean energy,” said Metzger in a separate conversation. She said other states have allowed municipalities to form Community Choice Aggregation (CCA), which allows towns, villages and cities to source their power directly (residents can opt out if they choose).
Because they work directly with suppliers, CCAs could contract with a wind farm, guaranteeing a market over a period of years to a developer and thereby overcoming one of the hurdles to developing renewables. Plus, a community can target the biggest-use areas and develop demand reduction strategies for greater efficiencies. “It really transforms energy sourcing,” she said.
There are new models of energy sourcing in use in the District of Columbia, in Massachusetts, and in other states.
