New York investor-owned utility Consolidated Edison Company (Con Edison) and its subsidiary Orange and Rockland Utilities (O&R) filed a revised implementation plan with the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) on Friday, slightly altering their energy storage procurement procedure.
Starting with its next procurement (and those thereafter), for the first time, both Con Edison and O&R will accept bids for portfolios of storage projects collectively sized over 5 megawatts (MW) that are connected to the transmission or distribution system and capable of directly participating in the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) wholesale markets and/or provide distribution benefits (if applicable).
These portfolios of energy storage projects can consist of no more than 10 projects located in the same NYISO zone within the utility’s service territory, so long as the total size of each project is at least 2 MW and the projects’ collective capacity is at least 5 MW. Con Edison and O&R are interested in projects across their respective service territories, however, they note in their filing that they may identify higher-value locations via its Request For Proposals (RFP) and give preference to resources located within those areas during the bid evaluation and selection process.
Other key changes from Con Edison’s last procurement in 2022 include the removal of a previous requirement that bidders pay distribution charging costs, consideration of projects interconnecting at a reliability standard lower than the prevailing local reliability standard, and some contractual changes detailed in Section VIII of the utility’s filing with the PSC.
Next steps
Con Edison and O&R have issued a common RFP to competitively secure scheduling rights for a term of up to 15 years, considering distribution-connected and transmission-connected projects separately in each procurement. This joint procurement will allow for an expedited and efficient procurement process, the utilities contend. Projects selected must be online no later than December 31, 2030.
The procurement will take place in two phases, intended to reduce RFP development costs for those projects that are not cost-effective and give the bidders of more cost-effective projects increased confidence in receiving a contract award when negotiating key project components like the purchase of land and equipment.
The first part of the application will request information from bidders to allow Con Edison and O&R to conduct a general evaluation of the bidder’s qualification and the potential viability of the bid. It is expected that during phase one the utilities’ market evaluations will enable them to provide bidders initial guidance regarding the viability of their bids. Following approval from the respective utility, selected bidders will be asked to complete phase two of their application, and the information provided therein will become binding.
Here’s what the utility’s timeline looks like:
Con Edison and Orange & Rockland issued their third storage solicitation on December 22, 2022, resulting in 115 MW of utility dispatch rights projects to date.
