The New York State Grid Operator (NYISO) said nearly 13 GW of energy storage could be installed on New York's grid by mid-century, providing an "extraordinary tool" for balancing renewable generation.
NYISO released its annual Electricity Trends report earlier this month, analyzing the health of the grid and wholesale electricity markets.
"We see energy storage as a very good and promising resource, and new energy storage installations will give us a special tool to help us balance wind and solar power," NYISO said in its introduction to electricity trends for 2022. Intermittent."
NYISO expects that installed energy storage capacity on the grid will continue to increase as it changes the rules of the wholesale electricity market and more people are willing to participate, thereby increasing energy storage revenue, both for electrochemical forms of energy storage such as lithium Batteries, or for mechanical forms of energy storage such as pumped hydro.
New York's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, introduced in 2019, requires New York State to achieve 70 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030 and 100 percent of its electricity supply to be emission-free by 2040.
To get there, the state has set a goal of deploying 3GW of energy storage by 2030, and at the beginning of this year Governor Kathy Hochul doubled that target to 6GW.
However, the NYISO said that today's energy storage technology is not enough to support a grid that uses mostly or exclusively renewable energy. Dewey said we need more than the short-term energy storage batteries currently deployed on a large scale around the world, but more "dispatchable, emission-free resources" such as using the gas grid to transport hydrogen or capture and store carbon resources, but these technologies are still some distance away from being introduced to the market.
Today, New York's power planning reserves are also beginning to dwindle, with fossil fuel resources currently being retired faster than clean energy sources are being added, NYISO said. In 2021, carbon emissions will actually increase slightly due to the closure of the Indian Point nuclear power plant and the addition of fossil fuel generators.
The Story of NYISO's "Two Grids"
Another challenge New York faces is its "two grids" tale. Overall, the NYC urban area is carbon-intensive, with few renewable energy resources and high electricity loads, while the out-of-city and upstate areas are Reliance on fossil fuels has been greatly reduced, mainly due to hydropower resources, and electricity demand is also much lower.
As a result, grid operators have proposed plans to invest in transmission resources, facilitate the importation of external power sources into southern New York, and set a 10GW distributed solar development target and stringent targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from buildings. These initiatives may also Promote the development of behind-the-meter energy storage, thereby reducing demand on the transmission system.
Changes in the electricity energy, capacity markets and wholesale markets for ancillary services will help drive investment in grid-scale and off-the-meter energy storage, NYISO said.
According to the New York Department of Public Service, by the end of 2021, New York State had 1,230 MW of energy storage projects in operation, contracted or authorized, which is equivalent to 80% of the initial policy target of 1,500 MW by 2025.
