Power Trends: New York ISO Podcast

Collaboration between the industry and government will be paramount to maintain robust wholesale markets and ensure grid reliability as the state continues to promote rapid development of renewable resources in the coming year.

That was the message from NYISO President and CEO Rich Dewey on the latest Power Trends podcast. In episode 38, Dewey reflected on his annual “State of the Grid” message to market participants and policymakers at the company’s Management Committee, highlighting several areas of focus that he says will drive the work of the NYISO in 2025.

Dewey outlined pillars necessary for a reliable clean energy transition and related ISO initiatives now underway. These include a major effort to examine options to modernize the capacity market and more accurately assess resources’ unique contributions to resource adequacy. Through NYISO planning studies, the organization also continues to examine declining reliability margins, additional transmission needs and extreme weather risks.

“We've seen some dramatic changes, but one of the things that has not changed in this time period has been our steadfast commitment to the reliability of the power system and everything that we need to do to ensure that we can keep power flowing for New Yorkers,” Dewey said. “It's just so essential to the health, safety and economy of New York.”

In this latest episode of the Power Trends podcast, Dewey also reflected on 2024 and ongoing energy sector trends, including the retirement of legacy power plants, the electrification of housing and transportation, and the influx of large loads like data centers, chip fabrication and traditional manufacturing plants.

“There is a fantastic news story of economic development across New York state with the addition of factories and data centers,” Dewey said. “Planning for that load growth — which translates into job growth and expansion of the economy — is exciting, but it's also challenging from the standpoint of making sure we have a reliable electric system that can meet that demand.

Dewey highlighted NYISO innovations and successes over the past year including changes to the process of studying the reliability impacts of new generation and large loads that seek to connect to the grid. Hundreds of wind, solar and battery storage projects are currently being evaluated through the NYISO’s new streamlined process.

Looking at the federal landscape, the NYISO is developing a compliance plan for FERC Order 1920, to strengthen the long-term regional transmission planning process, Dewey said.

Dewey also discussed the company’s emphasis on creating a “learning culture,” which he says is necessary for innovation in the modern-day energy sector. The NYISO has been able to recruit and develop a talented and diverse workforce prepared to meet the challenges ahead.

As the NYISO works to build out a clean and reliable electric grid, the organization also continues to invest in its collaborative relationships with neighboring ISOs, RTOs, state and federal agencies and stakeholders, according to Dewey.

“The electric system in the U.S. is one of the largest machines ever built. We're continuously dependent on our neighbors and the power systems that are adjacent to us,” Dewey said. “The ability to work collaboratively across the industry is going to continue to be crucial to our success.”

Learn More

• Follow us on Twitter @NewYorkISO and LinkedIn @NYISO
• Read our blogs and watch our videos
• Check out our 2040 grid page

Columbia University’s Daniel Zarrilli knows a thing or two about New York City and the effects of climate change.

For almost a decade prior to Hurricane Sandy, he worked on the city’s waterfront, managing maintenance and construction of the city’s piers and bulkheads, overseeing cruise terminals and other maritime assets, and working with coastal communities on a variety of local projects. That experience along the city’s 520-mile shoreline, plus his training as an engineer, put him in view of Mayor Michael Bloomberg as he was standing up his initiative to rebuild New York following Hurricane Sandy and make it more resilient.

Bloomberg appointed Zarrilli as the city’s first resilience director. He then became Chief Climate Policy Advisor under Mayor Bill de Blasio, helping usher landmark energy policy through the city council, which mandates emissions reductions produced by the city's largest buildings of 40 percent by 2030.

Now Zarrilli serves as Special Advisor for Climate and Sustainability at Columbia University, helping to create a new world-leading climate school and advising on pathways to achieve the university’s deep decarbonization goals.

This wealth of deep experience and expertise makes him a valuable addition to the NYISO’s Environmental Advisory Council, a group of outside experts that informs NYISO leadership on evolving state and federal climate policy and environmental justice considerations.

Local Law 97, New York City’s building decarbonization law passed in 2019, requires most buildings over 25,000 square feet to meet new energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions limits, with even stricter limits coming into effect in 2030.

There are already indications that the policy is working, Zarrilli said.

“New Yorkers have so much to be proud of for the progress that has been made,” Zarrilli said. “There were $20 billion in climate adaptation investments made after Hurricane Sandy, everything from flood protection to grid upgrades to new elevated hospitals in our coastal communities.”

“I think the much more exciting thing about Local Law 97 is how it has catalyzed this marketplace in New York City around clean energy technology, innovation, and investment that is all now centered in New York City,” he said.

“So much of our infrastructure was built for a world and a climate that doesn’t exist anymore,” he said.

He pointed to concerns about global economic conditions and supply chain challenges that can make electrification projects difficult. In the offshore wind space, he noted that some coastal communities have zoning concerns and questions that must be addressed and answered.

Zarrilli credits the NYISO’s forward-thinking approach to the wholesale electric market, which he says will drive incentives to speed up the clean energy transition.

“The role that the NYISO plays to help provide that stimulus and incentive is really important, and not a fully appreciated role,” Zarrilli said, “but it's a critical one that I think the state and other ISOs are going to continue to learn from.

Additional Resources and Information

The New York ISO Environmental Advisory Council

Columbia Climate School

Learn More

• Follow us on Twitter @NewYorkISO and LinkedIn @NYISO
• Read our blogs and watch our videos
• Check out our 2040 grid page

It’s Zach Smith’s job to prepare the New York energy grid for the future. Our Vice President of System and Resource Planning manages the team that looks at all potential reliability issues the grid could face, from a week to 10 years in the future.
The team also looks at all proposed energy resources that seek to enter the grid via our Interconnection Queue process, and the impact these resources could have on reliability. In the past several years, we’ve made changes to the process of approving new resources, speeding up the approval process to reduce the cost to developers.

“We’ve had this comprehensive planning process for many years now,” he said, in an interview with Kevin Lanahan, Vice President of External Affairs and Corporate Communications. “Now, with the changes to the grid, it’s so much more vitally important. We’re encountering all kinds of new challenges.”

New York State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) sets the nation’s most ambitious clean energy targets. Under the CLCPA, the grid must get 70% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030, as well as be emission-free by 2040.

“Some of the challenges are based around what happens when the weather doesn’t cooperate,” Smith said.

“What if the wind ceases to blow, what if clouds come in and you get less sunshine?” Smith asked. “You are still going to have significant electric demand. You need resources standing, willing and ready to produce, sometimes at a moment’s notice.”

In addition, the changing climate presents its own grid concerns. We recently published our Climate Change and Impact Study, which offers suggestions on where to strengthen the grid in order to keep it resilient in the face of risks to reliability like cold snaps, heat waves and ice storms. We’re evaluating all of the potential conditions and the corresponding economics . The way that we do that is through the interconnection process.

Meanwhile, we continue to see a tremendous number of new clean energy resources that developers are seeking to install in the coming years. Planning for these new resources, a process called the Interconnection Queue, is also a vital part of Smith’s duties.

“We’re evaluating all of that to make sure that the reliability and resiliency of the grid is maintained,” he said. “The New York ISO plays an important role in enabling these new resources and making sure they can interconnect reliably.”

Learn more, read our blog: The Road to 2040: Our Interconnection Queue Shows Unprecedented Growth of Clean Energy Investment in NY

Learn More

• Follow us on Twitter @NewYorkISO and LinkedIn @NYISO
• Read our blogs and watch our videos
• Check out our 2040 grid page

Gil C. Quiniones, President & CEO of the New York Power Authority (NYPA), has transformed the organization and he has a lot to say about the grid of the future. The internationally-recognized leader in the power industry oversees a quarter of New York’s energy generation and a third of its transmission.

The organization recently launched its 10-year, Vision2030 strategic plan, and is pushing with numerous other efforts to upgrade its facilities with the most cutting-edge technology to help meet New York’s CLCPA clean energy targets.

“It's really a moment in time of growth and investment in our state,” he told Kevin Lanahan, Vice President of External Affairs and Corporate Communications, during a conversation for our Power Trends Podcast.

Vision2030 calls for aggressively building out NYPA’s transmission system, preserving the value of its hydroelectric resources, transitioning its downstate gas generation to low to zero carbon emission resources, and helping customers reduce fossil fuel use in their own operations.

NYPA is working with the PEAK Coalition (a collection of environmental advocacy groups in New York City) to help retire or upgrade its gas-powered peaker plants in order to improve air quality in environmental justice neighborhoods. Potential options for replacement may include short- or long-term energy storage or the use of “green” hydrogen.

Quiniones also said NYPA has several business ventures in place to invest in offshore wind. The CLCPA calls for installing nine gigawatts of power off the coast of Long Island and New York City. NYPA is moving forward with other grid transmission improvement projects around the state to help move clean energy, he said.

“It's just amazing that everything is happening and the stars are aligned for more transmission build-out in our state,” he said.

Other topics that Quiniones touched upon included:

· Efforts to improve cybersecurity
· The company’s COVID response
· NYPA’s eight-month effort to help restore power in
Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria

For more about how we are addressing a zero-emissions grid with market-based solutions, visit the 2040 Power Grid webpage.

Learn More

• Follow us on Twitter @NewYorkISO and LinkedIn @NYISO
• Read our blogs and watch our videos
• Check out our 2040 grid page

In 2020, the pace of change on the power grid is being driven by aggressive legislation and the ways in which clean energy resources are being economically reevaluated.

In the past, reliability at the lowest-cost solution for ratepayers was paramount, but the urgency of climate change has shifted policies, priorities, and resources. How the transition plays out will be shaped by innovation and economic drivers. In Episode 6 of the Power Trends Podcast, NYISO President & CEO Rich Dewey shares his vision for addressing this radical evolution.
Dewey explains how our 20-year history of navigating changes in markets and policy have benefited significantly from our shared governance structure which brings diverse perspectives and interests to the table to drive innovation. Through this process, stakeholders collaborate with the NYISO to address complex problems by reconciling conflicting points of view in a manner that effectively drives consensus in the end.

With the impending influx of renewables, and their inherent intermittency, the NYISO is pursuing a variety of solutions with its stakeholders. Our grid in transition initiatives include:

• Our carbon pricing proposal, which continues to build support
• Rules for participation of aggregations of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) including solar and storage, and Energy Storage Resources (ESR) in markets, both of which were recently accepted by FERC (subject to further compliance filings)
• A variety of market structures to address the intermittency of renewables and with products that promote quick start pricing to reliability response and a more flexible and resilient grid

Learn More

• Follow us on Twitter @NewYorkISO and LinkedIn @NYISO
• Read our blogs and watch our videos
• Check out our 2040 grid page