Communities interested in cleaner energy, as well as greater control over their electric supply and reliability, are increasingly turning to microgrids — miniature power systems that serve an individual facility or area with electricity, either on its own or in concert with a larger power grid. Typically, a microgrid consists of energy generation and energy storage that can power a building or community and can be disconnected from the energy grid.Continue Reading Microgrids: Placing Energy in the Hands of the Consumer
Public Service Commission
New York State Office of Renewable Energy Siting Streamlines and Expedites Deployment of Large-Scale Renewables
New York State continues to supercharge the deployment of renewable energy projects. Building on landmark legislation passed in 2019, New York State’s newly created Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) has now finalized the regulations that will govern siting and permitting of large-scale renewable energy projects greater than 25 MW; projects between 20 and 25MW have the option of proceeding under Article 10 of the Public Service Law or the ORES process. The regulations create a clear glide path that replaces the lengthy and cumbersome process previously established under Article 10. With these new procedures in place, developers can expect a 60-day shot clock for ORES to make a completeness determination, and a 12-month deadline for ORES to issue a final decision on a siting permit to promote cost-effective and efficient development that aligns with New York State’s commitment to fully decarbonize its electric sector by 2040.
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New York State Public Service Commission Establishes Host Community Benefit Program
In an order issued on February 11, 2021, the New York State Public Service Commission (“Commission”) established a “host community benefit program” through which owners of large-scale renewable energy facilities (25 MW+) would pay $500/MW (for solar) or $1,000/MW (for wind) each year for the first 10 years of project operation to be distributed equally among all residential utility customers residing in the municipality where the facility would be located. See Case 20-E-0249, In the Matter of a Renewable Energy Facility Host Community Benefit Program, Order Adopting a Host Community Benefit Program (issued Feb. 11, 2021) (“Host Community Benefit Program Order”). Such benefits would complement—not replace—the numerous other benefits that renewable projects bring to local communities through payment in lieu of taxes (“PILOT”) agreements and other community agreements that fund local programs and initiatives.
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New York State Public Service Commission Accelerates Grid Modernization Efforts
On May 14, 2020, the New York State Public Service Commission (“Commission”) issued an order that will mark a turning point in the State’s electric grid modernization efforts (“Transmission Planning Order”). The Transmission Planning Order was issued in response to the recently enacted Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act (“Accelerate Act”), which was signed into law on April 3, 2020, as previously reported in Phillips Lytle’s Energy Client Alert. The Accelerate Act directs the Commission to conduct a comprehensive study (“Power Grid Study”) to identify distribution, transmission and bulk investments to facilitate timely achievement of New York State’s nation-leading clean energy objectives set forth in the Community Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). Upon completion of the Power Grid Study, the Accelerate Act directs the Commission to establish utility-specific capital plans to support the development and implementation of appropriate electric system upgrades.
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New York State Public Service Commission Flexes “Just and Reasonable” Muscle to Impose Sweeping Reforms to Energy Marketplace
The New York State Public Service Commission (“Commission”) leveraged an unprecedented interpretation of its “just and reasonable” regulatory authority to impose drastic changes to the retail energy marketplace, which will have ripple effects on Renewable Energy Credit (REC) markets, retail energy contracts, Distributed Energy Resource (DER) providers and other clean technology stakeholders. The Commission’s Order…
New York State Public Service Commission Modernizes Community Solar Billing Procedures
Since the New York State Public Service Commission (“Commission”) first authorized the Community Distributed Generation (CDG) program in 2015, CDG Sponsors—the entities that organize, own and/or operate CDG projects—have faced an uphill battle in explaining the program, marketing it to customers and streamlining the energy billing process. The confusion arises first and foremost because CDG customers currently receive only bill credits, not renewable electricity or the environmental attributes of that electricity. This is further complicated by the fact that credits are typically denominated on the bill in kilowatt hours and are allocated in a cumbersome manner, whereby the utility first applies credits to a customer’s utility bill, but then the customer separately pays for a portion of those credits at a discounted rate (the “CDG Savings Rate”) to a third party – the CDG Sponsor – through a second bill. In addition to creating market confusion, this two-step process imposes unnecessary customer management and billing costs.
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Reset 2.0?
Public Service Commission Resets Retail Energy Marketplace:
All ESCOs Required to Re-Register Under New Rules and Completely Revise Product Offerings
On December 12, 2019, the New York State Public Service Commission (“Commission”) voted to reset the retail energy marketplace by requiring all Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) to re-register for eligibility to serve customers. While the final order remains to be issued, the Department of Public Service (DPS) explained that as part of the re-registration process, it will subject each ESCO to new eligibility requirements and require all ESCOs to modify their product offerings to fit one of four categories.
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New York Repeals ESCO Sales Tax Exemption for Businesses
On April 1, 2019, the State Legislature approved a $175.5 billion budget for 2019-2020, which, among other things, eliminates an important sales tax exemption that allowed certain commercial customers of Energy Service Companies (“ESCOs”) to receive electric and gas supply without paying sales tax on transmission and distribution charges.
Since 2000, shortly after New York restructured its energy markets, the NYS Tax Law has included an exemption for commercial ESCO customers that was designed to incentivize consumer choice and enhance the ability of ESCOs to offer competitive prices (“Exemption”). Under the Exemption, commercial customers that received service from an ESCO would pay sales tax on the commodity portion of their bills, but not the delivery service. In contrast, default utility customers paid sales tax on both the commodity and delivery provided by the utility.
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New York Transforms Energy Storage Economics
Throughout the first four years of New York’s Reforming the Energy Vision (“REV”) initiative, the precise role of energy storage has been unclear. There was no energy storage goal, only sparse incentives were available to spur development, the regulatory framework remained under construction, and the relatively nascent storage applications did not seem to fit within currently existing market mechanisms.
New York is now paving the way for a robust storage industry. In December 2018, the Public Service Commission (“Commission”) adopted an energy storage goal of 3,000 MW by 2030, with an interim target of 1,500 MW by 2025 (the “Storage Order”). To jumpstart the program, the Commission ordered Consolidated Edison to competitively procure and deploy 300 MW of energy storage by 2022, and the remaining utilities to each procure 10 MW of energy storage in their respective service territories.
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New York Public Service Commission to Create “Office of Investigations and Enforcement” to Centralize Compliance Regime
The New York Public Service Commission (“PSC”) appears to be creating a new Office of Investigations and Enforcement (“OIE”) and has posted a job listing for a Director of OIE (“Director”) who would report to the CEO of the Department of Public Service (“DPS”), as well as the Chairman of the PSC. The Director would be tasked with managing the OIE’s efforts in investigating and enforcing the regulations promulgated pursuant to §25 and §25-a of the Public Service Law. This mandate may include a vast field of public utilities and comes at a time when New York is in the midst of updating its complex Value of Distributed Energy Resources mechanism, which regulates electric utilities in their dealings with the ever-increasing number of privately owned distributed energy resources.
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