Bill Text: NY S04579 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Amended
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) 2024-05-16 - ADVANCED TO THIRD READING [S04579 Detail]
Download: New_York-2023-S04579-Amended.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 4579--A 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 -- recommitted to the Committee on Energy and Telecommuni- cations in accordance with Senate Rule 6, sec. 8 -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee 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-x to read as follows: 3 § 66-x. 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 EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD03871-02-4S. 4579--A 2 1 distribution outage, with the exception of momentary interruptions asso- 2 ciated with transitions to and from grid parallel and grid islanded 3 operations; and 4 (d) "microgrid" shall mean a load or group of interconnected loads and 5 distributed energy resources within clearly defined electrical bounda- 6 ries that acts as a single controllable entity with respect to the elec- 7 tric grid. A microgrid can connect and disconnect from the electric 8 grid to enable it to operate in both grid-connected or island-mode. 9 2. On or within one hundred twenty days of the effective date of this 10 section, the commission shall, after a hearing held on notice, adopt an 11 order requiring the New York state energy research and development 12 authority to establish a program to support the development of micro- 13 grids that are capable of providing an uninterrupted supply of power to 14 one or more community outage assets through an extended electric 15 distribution outage. Such program shall provide overall funding in the 16 amount of seventy-five million dollars for the years two thousand twen- 17 ty-five through two thousand twenty-nine. Such program shall include a 18 preference for those microgrids that: 19 (a) maximize annual reductions in carbon dioxide equivalent, oxides of 20 nitrogen, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter emissions achieved rela- 21 tive to marginal grid emissions for the region in which the project is 22 located. For purposes of this section the commission shall define 23 marginal emissions using the same metric or metrics that are used to 24 quantify emissions reductions achieved by other New York state energy 25 research and development authority clean energy programs; 26 (b) displace or otherwise reduce the operation of diesel back-up 27 generators; and 28 (c) are more capable of being expeditiously permitted, interconnected 29 and commissioned in preparation for extreme weather events and other 30 grid related risks. 31 § 2. The public authorities law is amended by adding a new section 32 1020-nn to read as follows: 33 § 1020-nn. Microgrid development program. 1. Definitions. As used in 34 this section: 35 (a) "community outage asset" means a public or private entity that 36 provides critical services to the public during an extended electric 37 distribution outage. Community outage assets shall include, but are not 38 limited to: telecommunications providers, hospitals, nursing homes, 39 large retail stores, supermarkets, government agencies, data centers, 40 transportation systems, financial institutions, gas stations, educa- 41 tional institutions, health care providers, large multi-family residen- 42 tial housing, wastewater treatment facilities, community centers and 43 other customers deemed by the commission to provide a critical service 44 to the public that would promote or enhance health and safety during an 45 outage of the electric distribution system; 46 (b) "extended electric distribution outage" means a total or partial 47 outage of the authority's electric distribution system that continues 48 for a period of twenty-four hours or longer; 49 (c) "uninterrupted" means that the output of the microgrid system is 50 delivered to the end-use customer throughout an extended electric 51 distribution outage, with the exception of momentary interruptions asso- 52 ciated with transitions to and from grid parallel and grid islanded 53 operations; and 54 (d) "microgrid" shall mean a load or group of interconnected loads and 55 distributed energy resources within clearly defined electrical bounda- 56 ries that acts as a single controllable entity with respect to the elec-S. 4579--A 3 1 tric grid. A microgrid can connect and disconnect from the electric 2 grid to enable it to operate in both grid-connected or island-mode. 3 2. On or within one hundred eighty days of the effective date of this 4 section, the authority shall establish a program to support the develop- 5 ment of microgrids that are capable of providing an uninterrupted supply 6 of power to one or more community outage assets through an extended 7 electric distribution outage. Such program shall provide overall funding 8 in the amount of twenty-five million dollars for the years two thousand 9 twenty-five through two thousand twenty-nine. Such program shall include 10 a preference for those microgrids that: 11 (a) maximize annual reductions in carbon dioxide equivalent, oxides of 12 nitrogen, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter emissions achieved rela- 13 tive to marginal grid emissions for the authority's service territory. 14 For purposes of this section the authority shall define marginal emis- 15 sions using the same metric or metrics that are used to quantify emis- 16 sions reductions achieved by other New York state energy research and 17 development authority clean energy programs; 18 (b) displace or otherwise reduce the operation of diesel back-up 19 generators; and 20 (c) are more capable of being expeditiously permitted, interconnected 21 and commissioned in preparation for extreme weather events and other 22 grid related risks. 23 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
