NYISO Weighs In On The New York State Draft Energy Plan

NYISO is the New York Independent System Operator — the not-for-profit entity created to manage New York State’s electrical grid.  Their main job is assuring that there is sufficient electricity generated moment to moment to closely match customer demand.  Neighboring states have multi-state ISOs (i.e., PJM and ISO-NE) to do the same job, but being New York, we have our own.

If there is any entity that ought to be loudly outspoken about New York’s ridiculous energy schemes, it is NYISO.  After all, when generating most of our electricity from wind and sun proves not to work, as it will, and when the blackouts follow, as they will, NYISO stands to get a large share of the blame.

So where are they?  The good news is that they are slowly waking up.  The bad news is that even now they are not being nearly as outspoken or as loud as they should be.  On October 6 they submitted a long (25 page) Comment on the State’s new Energy Plan.  That Comment takes the level of their expressed alarm to a new, if still unjustifiably muted, level.  

As background, in 2019 New York State enacted its Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, mandating, among other things, 70% of electricity generation from “renewables” by 2030, and 100% from “zero emissions” sources by 2040.  At the same time, New York City enacted its Local Law 97, mandating (via complex maximum emissions formulas) that most large buildings convert to electric heat by 2030.  Supposedly, the State and City would enable fulfillment of these mandates through having developers construct large amounts of wind and solar generators.  That process had barely gotten off the ground when, earlier this year, the federal government ended nearly all of the grants and subsidies that had made construction of wind and solar facilities at all feasible.

On July 25 the State’s Energy Planning Board came out with its self-described “Draft Energy Plan.”  It’s a “draft” because they are taking comments, and may even make some revisions depending on those (don’t count on it).  In a post on August 11 I described the so-called Plan as “hundreds of pages of fluff,” cheerleading for a supposed transition to a renewables-based electricity system, but lacking anything as basic as a feasibility study or a cost projection.  I then submitted my own Comment on the Plan, and had a further post describing that on September 27.  Key takeaway:

[T]he so-called “Energy Plan” is not an energy plan at all.  It would more accurately be described as random musings and wishful thinking by some completely incompetent people who have no idea what they are doing.