The New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) plans to adopt a uniform methodology for conducting generator energy deliverability studies by renewable developers and to require each new applicant for a certificate of public convenience and necessity (CPCN) to provide such study or seek an exemption from such requirement.
‘The methodology we are adopting helps ensure that transmission resources are available to accommodate renewable energy delivery and that renewable energy, where cost-effective, is not subject to unreasonable bottlenecking in remote areas of the electric system,’ says PSC Chairman Garry Brown.
The PSC's decision explains that applicants for a CPCN, which is needed before a renewable energy project proposed by an electric corporation can be built, may rely on any recent New York Independent System Operator or transmission owner study that would indicate that the project's output would be deliverable and would not displace existing renewable energy, where such study or studies exists.
The PSC will use this information in balancing environmental impacts of the proposed project compared to the energy the project can produce and deliver as part of its CPCN application evaluation.
To help estimate where congestion will likely develop on the system, it is desirable to have the information on energy deliverability calculated based on consistent assumptions and presented in the same format. Should there be deliverability problems identified in the study, the PSC could subsequently require the utilities to study the cost=effectiveness, from a ratepayer perspective, of alleviating the bottleneck.
For those projects that do not require a CPCN, the order does not impose any new study requirements.
SOURCE: The New York State Public Service Commission
