A report, “New York City’s Aging Power Plants: Risks, Replacement Options and the Role of Energy Storage” was prepared by Stratagen Consulting for the New York Battery and Energy Storage Consortium. The report describes a developing crisis of a large part of the Big Apple’s power plant infrastructure in varying stages of overdue retirement. Thousands of megawatts of steam and gas turbine systems, responsible for much of New York City’s non-carbon pollution, especially in proximate low-income communities, are apparently beyond effective retrofitting and their electricity generation, especially during peak hours, need to be replaced. At present, only a few hundred megawatts are at the facility study phase, which may mean an earliest date of online startup of 2021.
This challenge is especially acute due to constricted resource and demand needs. New York City generates slightly more than half its electricity locally, and cannot easily access clean power from hydro or wind power sources due to lack of transmission, particularly during daytime peak hours. On a statewide basis, the growth of natural gas sourced electricity threatens carbon reduction goals.
The Stratagen study determined that a serious commitment to energy storage systems would make them economically competitive with new leaker plants. Like solar and other renewable energy, energy storage would require long term contracts and NY Independent System Operator compensation for financial viability. An interesting note is that peakers apparently operate at less than 10%, below the capacity factor of PV, with energy storage providing dispatching capability to solar. New York City ratepayers meanwhile pay $268 million a year in capacity charges for peakers, which could finance energy storage instead.
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