INTERVIEW: Verdonck Partners, Solar Landscape offer insight on NYSERDA's storage road map

The New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) recently approved the framework for the state to achieve 6 GW of energy storage by 2030, and local developers say that goal is feasible if the state addresses safety issues spurring community pushback that could impact permitting.

The plan breaks down the 6 GW of storage into 3,000 MW of new bulk storage, 1,500 MW of new retail storage, and 200 MW of new residential storage. It also details plans to use at least 35% of program funding to support projects in disadvantaged communities and target the reduction of fossil fuel peaker plant emissions.

Developers like Patrick Verdonck, founder of Verdonck Partners and Rhynland Energy, look at the plan with cautious optimism.

Verdonck said that the possibility of having long-term offtakers for bulk storage “is very attractive and today only California has that.”

He compared the potential market for storage in New York to the offshore wind market along the northeast, saying long-term contracts “have really spurred the development of offshore wind” in the region.

Verdonck and Rob Ritchie, vice president of energy storage at Solar Landscape, told NPM that they believe easing the interconnection process will be a key challenge for the state to achieve its storage goals.

“What we're going to need to see to enable not only the energy storage goals to be met, but also the solar goals of the state is to account for what energy storage means for local hosting capacity, and how energy storage can be a tool to help enable more hosting capacity for distributed generation,” Ritchie said.

The state is fighting to eliminate bottlenecks in its interconnection queue with reforms to its study system, which is transitioning from a first-come first-served system to a cluster model. NYISO wants to abbreviate a 360-day transitional cluster study proposed by FERC down to a “couple of months” and move straight into its first true cluster study this summer, according to its plan filed May 1.

This move to pare its queue system down is meant to fall in step with FERC Order 2023, which also aims to streamline the interconnection process. As it states in its filing, New York will eliminate the standalone feasibility and system impact studies that precede its Class Year Studies and fold elements of both into one comprehensive cluster study process.

If New York is able to reach its 6 GW, storage will represent 20% of the state’s peak electricity load. The road map outlines goals to reach 3,000 MW of new bulk storage, which is enough to power up to one million homes for up to four hours, according to NYSERDA’s announcement.

New York's climate agenda aims to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 40% by 2030 and 85% by 2050 from 1990 levels. The state aspires to have a zero-emission electricity sector by 2040, including 70% renewable energy generation by 2030, and economy-wide carbon neutrality by 2050.

Addressing community concerns

While battery storage facilities are viewed as an essential tool for the state to achieve its climate and energy goals, New Yorkers are worried about fire safety following three incidents in 2023. In February last year, Governor Kathy Hochul formed the Inter-Agency Fire Safety Working Group in response to three fire incidents at battery storage facilities in Jefferson, Orange and Suffolk counties.

No one was injured and studies after the incidents showed chemicals released during the fires did not harm local air quality or waterways, but residents are still wary of new projects.

Verdonck said they are “very supportive” of the state’s effort to find and provide guidance, especially since local authorities have jurisdiction over permitting projects.

“I think the reforms to the interconnection process are positive, and I’d say that the remaining key obstacle is ensuring that the local permitting authorities have the appropriate tools to evaluate storage,” Verdonck said. “We feel like the local authorities are not necessarily opposed to storage, but they don't always have the perfect tools to evaluate the risks around storage.”

Dawn Baker and Christine Panos, New York residents who are part of a movement against large-scale battery storage facilities, wrote an editorial letter published July 10 in “The Journal News,” a New York newspaper. Their comments came in response to an op-ed from Marguerite Wells, the executive director at the Alliance for Clean Energy New York and Julie Tighe, the head of the League of Conservative Voters.

Baker and Panos said residents see incidents like the fire at the Otay Mesa plant in California that burned for 17 days when they look at locally proposed projects like Union Energy Center, a 116 MW storage facility from East Point Energy.

“Therefore, we vehemently disagree that New York should accept the fire risk to build grid scale lithium-ion battery storage plant facilities,” the letter states.

Ritchie said the final results from the New York governor’s working group should help ease worries and standardize storage safety.

“The results from the Inter-Agency Fire Safety Working Group are only going to be helpful to the industry in providing more standardization and ensuring that the best and brightest ideas in terms of controlling safety for these systems are brought to the forefront,” he said. “Safety has to be the first consideration for these projects in how they're designed, how they're developed, how they're sited and how they're operated.”

NPM data indicates New York already has significant interest in storage development, with 75 applications totaling 9 GW, 14 of which are at an advanced stage and total 2 GW of potential storage if they reach the finish line.

Looking to the future, Verdonck said that he wouldn’t expect an RFP from New York until early 2025, adding that between an order “and actual implementation, it could still take 12 to 18 months” to see one.

*This story was originally published exclusively for NPM subscribers last month.

NPM US (New Project Media) is a leading data, intelligence and events company dedicated to providing origination led coverage of the renewable energy market for the development, finance, advisory & corporate community.

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