ALBANY, New York — The state’s grid operator has escalated its warnings that new renewables aren’t coming online fast enough to meet growing energy demand, explicitly backing additional fossil fuel plants to keep the lights on.
The New York Independent System Operator has for years warned about shrinking reliability margins — the cushion of available generation to keep the ACs humming and factories running. With new economic development projects, data centers and other large loads hooking up to the grid, those warnings have taken on new urgency.
“We must consider all options for investing in the grid to provide for reliability and certainty at the most efficient cost,” wrote NYISO President and CEO Rich Dewey in the annual Power Trends report released Monday.
“The addition of new dispatchable generation needs to be considered in the near term to mitigate the dual risks of accelerated load growth and aging infrastructure,” he added. “In addition to new conventional supply, the repowering of aging, inefficient and higher emitting assets should be evaluated as a bridge to a lower carbon future while delivering a more reliable electric system to support new economic development projects.”
