New York Power Authority Now Authorized To Supply Power To Municipal Aggregations, Provide Low-Cost Finance To CCA Renewable Projects

The recently adopted New York budget authorizes the New York PSC to provide power supplies to municipal aggregations (CCAs) and also provide financing for CCA renewable energy projects

The relevant budget bill (S. 1508) requires that the provision of power supplies by NYPA to a CCA shall occur through an ESCO or other entity authorized by the PSC

S. 1508 provides that NYPA may:

(A) supply power and energy procured from competitive market sources to any (i) authority customer, (ii) public entity, or (iii) CCA community through the supply of such products through an energy services company or other entity that is authorized by the public service commission to procure and sell energy products to participants of a CCA program, provided, however, that the authority shall not supply at any point more than a total of four hundred megawatts of power and energy to authority customers and public entities pursuant to the new authority

(B) supply renewable power, energy, or related credits or attributes procured through a competitive process, from competitive market sources, or through negotiation when a competitive procurement is not reasonably feasible and such products can be procured on reasonably competitive terms to (i) any authority customer, (ii) any public entity, or (iii) any CCA community through the supply of such products through an energy services company or other entity that is authorized by the public service commission to procure and sell energy products to participants of a CCA program

Furthermore, S. 1508 provides that NYPA may:

(A) alone or jointly with one or more other entities, finance the development of renewable energy generating projects that are located in the state, including its territorial waters, and/or on property or in waters under the jurisdiction or regulatory authority of the United States

(B) purchase power, energy or related credits or attributes produced from such renewable energy generating projects, and

(C) allocate and sell any such products to (i) any authority customer, (ii) any public entity, and (iii) any CCA community through an energy services company or other entity that is authorized by the public service commission to procure and sell energy products to participants of a CCA program, provided that the authority shall not, pursuant to the authority in this subparagraph, finance more than six renewable energy generation projects and have a per-project electric generating capacity in excess of twenty-five megawatts.

Nothing in the bill authorizes NYPA to act as an energy supply company or administrator for CCA programs.

Joule Assets said of the legislation that it requires NYPA, "to support extant market participants, in preference to a unilateral and fully integrated market role for the agency."

"The authorization will seed development by providing highly competitive capital to wind, hydro and solar developers. This capital will only be available to support power plants that serve residents in municipalities that have activated specific home-rule authority, through a mechanism titled Community Choice Aggregation (CCA)," Joule Assets said

"As a result, communities that pass a CCA local law will now be able to contract for lower-cost renewable power for their residents and small businesses. NYPA's cost of capital is so much lower than what has previously been offered to the market, that these 'CCA communities' will gain terms for their residents unavailable elsewhere. CCA community residents are slated to gain access to new, inexpensive local renewable power," Joule Assets said

Joule Assets said that the legislation explicitly authorizes the construction of six large new renewable power plants, providing 400 MWs of supply as well as an unlimited number of smaller (<25 MW) renewable power plants throughout the state.