Josh Verleun - Environmental law | Sustainability

New York’s energy infrastructure is aging—from the transmission lines that bring power across the state to the power plants that generate the electricity that lights our homes.  In his “state of the state” address Governor Cuomo spoke of building an energy highway—a broad-based public-private initiative to upgrade and modernize New York State’s electric power system.

Last week the governor’s Energy Highway Task Force kicked off their efforts to bring together “powerful ideas” to make the highway a reality with a summit at Columbia University and the announcement of an official Request for Information (RFI) which the Task Force will issue this week (April 11th).

During the summit members of the Task Force and other experts from across the spectrum of government, utilities, energy generators, transmission developers, consultants, and not-for profits, spoke on the challenges that New York faces, and what it will take to bring reliable, green, energy infrastructure to the state.

At the summit James Laurito, president of the Central Hudson Gas and Electric Corporation and the chairman of a statewide study of transmission and reliability said that

“Of the 12,000 miles of transmission lines in New York State, about 4,700 will require replacement in the next 40 years, he said. Bottlenecks in the system cost consumers $1.1 billion in 2010, he said, with cheap power from upstate unable to squeeze into downstate areas and more expensive plants supplying the electricity instead.”

Solutions to fix the bottleneck in upstate New York are still under development and will hopefully emerge through the RFI process. One project that will help drive down electricity prices and bring renewable energy to NYC is already undergoing permitting review. The Champlain Hudson Power Express project that will bring 1000MW of renewable energy from Canada into NYC is currently before the NYS Public Service Commission for an Article 7 Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need and the US Dept of Energy for a Presidential Permit to import electricity from Canada.This project will bypass the upstate bottleneck—bringing power directly NYC.

More projects that directly address excess generation in upstate New York, fix the bottleneck, and support siting of new renewable energy within the state will also be needed. This is a time of opportunity in New York and the Energy Highway initiative and Task Force is an exciting step towards building modern, green, and smart energy solutions in the state.

Stay tuned for more in the coming days and months.