BILL NUMBER: S8628

SPONSOR: MAY
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to authorize and direct the public service commission to conduct
a study on the deployment of energy interconnection processes into the
electrical grid

 
PURPOSE:

To produce a study on regulatory barriers to the deployment of energy
interconnection processes in the state

 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

Section 1 authorizes the public service commission to conduct a study on
the deployment of energy interconnection processes

Section 2 directs the public service commission to submit a report on
their findings to the governor, the speaker of the assembly, and tempo-
rary president of the senate, along with any recommendations
              

Section 3 provides definitions for "energy interconnection process,"
"electrical grid," and "renewable energy resources"

Section 4 establishes the effective date of the bill

 
JUSTIFICATION:

In order to reach the goals set out by the Climate and Community
Protection Act, New York state must examine how each part of our power
system works and maximize the efficiency at which we operate.  One area
that has received lots of national focus is the interconnection process.
Interconnection is the process through which power generation facilities
are connected to the larger energy grid.  Last July, the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC) mandated changes to transmission providers'
interconnection rules, aiming to address requests from generators and
energy storage developers to connect to the grid.

One process that has received a lot of attention is a "connect and
manage" approach. In our current approach, there is an interconnection
queue, and a study has to be completed for each proposed project to
ensure that the overall grid system has capacity before a project is
allowed to connect to the grid. The queue can be delayed because an
extensive study has to be completed for each proposed energy production
facility. However, in a connect and manage approach, production gener-
ation facilities are brought onto the grid, and then the grid operator
directs the facility to curtail energy production if needed during times
of high congestion on the grid. This allows for much faster deployment
of new renewable energy generation projects, as this is a much more
efficient process.  The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT)
has seen success in bringing in new energy at a rapid clip onto the grid
after adopting this type of approach.

This bill is designed to holistically study our interconnection process
in New York State and ensure that our process is able to bring enough
renewable energy onto the grid to hit our important climate change
goals. There are a wide variety of system changes, processes, and new
technologies that can be studied to ensure maximum productivity in
bringing new electric production onto the grid.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New bill

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

To be determined

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately