Bill Text: NY S04579 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Establishes a program to develop microgrids that are capable of providing an uninterrupted supply of power to one or more community outage assets through an extended electric distribution outage.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2024-06-07 - COMMITTED TO RULES [S04579 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-S04579-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          4579

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                    February 10, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sen.  COMRIE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
          printed to be committed to the Committee on  Energy  and  Telecommuni-
          cations

        AN  ACT  to amend the public service law and the public authorities law,
          in relation to developing microgrids in preparation for extreme weath-
          er events and other risks to public security

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1.  The public service law is amended by adding a new section
     2  66-u to read as follows:
     3    § 66-u. Microgrid development program. 1. Definitions. As used in this
     4  section:
     5    (a) "community outage asset" means a public  or  private  entity  that
     6  provides  critical  services  to  the public during an extended electric
     7  distribution outage. Community outage assets shall include, but are  not
     8  limited  to:    telecommunications  providers, hospitals, nursing homes,
     9  large retail stores, supermarkets, government  agencies,  data  centers,
    10  transportation  systems,  financial  institutions,  gas stations, educa-
    11  tional institutions, large multi-family residential housing,  wastewater
    12  treatment  facilities,  community  centers and other customers deemed by
    13  the commission to provide a critical service to the  public  that  would
    14  promote  or  enhance  health and safety during an outage of the electric
    15  distribution system;
    16    (b) "extended electric distribution outage" means a total  or  partial
    17  outage  of  an electric corporation's distribution system that continues
    18  for a period of twenty-four hours or longer;
    19    (c) "uninterrupted" means that the output of the microgrid  system  is
    20  delivered  to  the  end-use  customer  throughout  an  extended electric
    21  distribution outage, with the exception of momentary interruptions asso-
    22  ciated with transitions to and from  grid  parallel  and  grid  islanded
    23  operations; and

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD03871-01-3
        S. 4579                             2

     1    (d) "microgrid" shall mean a load or group of interconnected loads and
     2  distributed  energy  resources within clearly defined electrical bounda-
     3  ries that acts as a single controllable entity with respect to the elec-
     4  tric grid.  A microgrid can connect and  disconnect  from  the  electric
     5  grid to enable it to operate in both grid-connected or island-mode.
     6    2.  On or within one hundred twenty days of the effective date of this
     7  section, the commission shall, after a hearing held on notice, adopt  an
     8  order  requiring  the  New  York  state  energy research and development
     9  authority to establish a program to support the  development  of  micro-
    10  grids  that are capable of providing an uninterrupted supply of power to
    11  one or  more  community  outage  assets  through  an  extended  electric
    12  distribution  outage.  Such program shall provide overall funding in the
    13  amount of seventy-five million dollars for the years two thousand  twen-
    14  ty-four through two thousand twenty-eight.  Such program shall include a
    15  preference for those microgrids that:
    16    (a) maximize annual reductions in carbon dioxide equivalent, oxides of
    17  nitrogen, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter emissions achieved rela-
    18  tive  to  marginal grid emissions for the region in which the project is
    19  located. For purposes  of  this  section  the  commission  shall  define
    20  marginal  emissions  using  the  same metric or metrics that are used to
    21  quantify emissions reductions achieved by other New  York  state  energy
    22  research and development authority clean energy programs;
    23    (b)  displace  or  otherwise  reduce  the  operation of diesel back-up
    24  generators; and
    25    (c) are more capable of being expeditiously permitted,  interconnected
    26  and  commissioned  in  preparation  for extreme weather events and other
    27  grid related risks.
    28    § 2. The public authorities law is amended by  adding  a  new  section
    29  1020-nn to read as follows:
    30    §  1020-nn.  Microgrid development program. 1. Definitions. As used in
    31  this section:
    32    (a) "community outage asset" means a public  or  private  entity  that
    33  provides  critical  services  to  the public during an extended electric
    34  distribution outage. Community outage assets shall include, but are  not
    35  limited  to:    telecommunications  providers, hospitals, nursing homes,
    36  large retail stores, supermarkets, government  agencies,  data  centers,
    37  transportation  systems,  financial  institutions,  gas stations, educa-
    38  tional institutions, health care providers, large multi-family  residen-
    39  tial  housing,  wastewater  treatment  facilities, community centers and
    40  other customers deemed by the commission to provide a  critical  service
    41  to  the public that would promote or enhance health and safety during an
    42  outage of the electric distribution system;
    43    (b) "extended electric distribution outage" means a total  or  partial
    44  outage  of  the  authority's electric distribution system that continues
    45  for a period of twenty-four hours or longer;
    46    (c) "uninterrupted" means that the output of the microgrid  system  is
    47  delivered  to  the  end-use  customer  throughout  an  extended electric
    48  distribution outage, with the exception of momentary interruptions asso-
    49  ciated with transitions to and from  grid  parallel  and  grid  islanded
    50  operations; and
    51    (d) "microgrid" shall mean a load or group of interconnected loads and
    52  distributed  energy  resources within clearly defined electrical bounda-
    53  ries that acts as a single controllable entity with respect to the elec-
    54  tric grid.  A microgrid can connect and  disconnect  from  the  electric
    55  grid to enable it to operate in both grid-connected or island-mode.
        S. 4579                             3

     1    2.  On or within one hundred eighty days of the effective date of this
     2  section, the authority shall establish a program to support the develop-
     3  ment of microgrids that are capable of providing an uninterrupted supply
     4  of power to one or more community  outage  assets  through  an  extended
     5  electric distribution outage. Such program shall provide overall funding
     6  in  the amount of twenty-five million dollars for the years two thousand
     7  twenty-four  through  two  thousand  twenty-eight.  Such  program  shall
     8  include a preference for those microgrids that:
     9    (a) maximize annual reductions in carbon dioxide equivalent, oxides of
    10  nitrogen, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter emissions achieved rela-
    11  tive  to  marginal grid emissions for the authority's service territory.
    12  For purposes of this section the authority shall define  marginal  emis-
    13  sions  using  the same metric or metrics that are used to quantify emis-
    14  sions reductions achieved by other New York state  energy  research  and
    15  development authority clean energy programs;
    16    (b)  displace  or  otherwise  reduce  the  operation of diesel back-up
    17  generators; and
    18    (c) are more capable of being expeditiously permitted,  interconnected
    19  and  commissioned  in  preparation  for extreme weather events and other
    20  grid related risks.
    21    § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.