Today, Marie French of POLITICO NY & NJ Energy wrote: NYISO SUMMER WARNING: The state’s grid will have its lowest reliability margin in recent history going into the summer, the independent grid operator warned on Friday. The margin — essentially, the buffer of available generation above what’s expected to be needed under normal conditions — will be just 417 megawatts. Regulations finalized under Gov. Andrew Cuomo have forced some of the most polluting peaker plants to retire in recent years, increasing the strain on the grid. The picture looks even more dire if there’s a heatwave — nearly a certainty in the age of climate change and record-breaking heat every year. In a 3-day heatwave with an average daily temperature of 95 degrees, the grid has a forecast shortfall of 1,679 MW, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) reports. That rises to more than 3,300 MW in an extreme heatwave of 98 degrees. “We're increasingly concerned with the lack of new or repowered supply resources entering New York coupled with the age of the incumbent generation fleet to meet peak consumer demand,” said NYISO spokesperson Kevin Lanahan. “After accounting for a layered set of emergency operating tools used to preserve reliability on the high voltage electric system, we're entering summer with the lowest reserve margin we've yet calculated.”
Unfortunately, this potential crisis was years in the making, not just predictable but predicted, and a direct result of specific actions--by former Governor Cuomo in closing Indian Point arbitrarily and unnecessarily and retiring those peakers, but also by the New York Independent System Operator, which saw this coming and did little to prepare. And years ago, my former employer NRG Energy as well other companies, began offering to build new powerplants and/or repower old and retiring generating units in the NYC area of the NYISO footprint, a notoriously-constrained area into which it's historically been very difficult to import electricity from neighboring areas. Six months ago, when NYISO began sounding the alarm in advance of summer shortfalls, I published an article detailing how we had the rug pulled out from under our proposal to repower our plant in Queens, after years of work, a significant financial investment and earnest community outreach that would, if accepted, have at minimum provided at least some additional megawatts.
The story of how our efforts were rebuffed, and even abandoned on a dime by some local politicians putting a wet finger in the wind are worth revisiting, now that NYC is staring down the barrel of potential brownouts at best. Note, especially, the quote of condemnation from NY State Senator Mike Gianaris, and then note in the linked article below what he said originally--a full-throttled voice of support in favor of the plant.
The Queens Daily Eagle, October 21, 2021: "Queens climate activists rejoiced Wednesday after Gov. Kathy Hochul and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation denied construction permits to a controversial fossil fuel power plant in Astoria."
As for the Queens NY "community" that ultimately said no to the plant after years of saying yes, it's easy to smugly cry "NIMBY" until you're trapped in an elevator and your air conditioning fails on a 98 degree day. Our project wouldn't have entirely solved this resource adequacy shortfall that NYC is facing, but it certainly would've made a difference.
Please read on.