New York Power Authority, environmental groups explore ways to replace gas peakers with cleaner technology

The New York Power Authority (NYPA) and the PEAK Coalition announced that they are jointly exploring how NYPA can transition its New York City fleet of natural gas-fired peaker plants to battery storage and other clean technologies. As part of their agreement to explore transition options, NYPA also agreed to pay for its own consultants as well as those supporting the PEAK Coalition partners.

“This New York agreement is a responsible model that should be followed in other communities with peaker plants,” said Lewis Milford, president of the Clean Energy Group, a national nonprofit and an adviser to the PEAK Coalition. NYPA is as the largest state public power organization in the U.S. “As evidenced by this agreement, [it] is committed to being a leader in piloting low to zero carbon emission resources and technologies,” Milford added.

Transitioning NYPA’s gas-fired peaker plants to new technologies should improve the air quality in surrounding neighborhoods.

“There is no better time to address pollution and [the] inequities of New York City’s energy system,” said Elizabeth Yeampierre, executive director of UPROSE, the Sunset Park, Brooklyn-based community group that challenged NYPA over its gas-fired peaker plant program back in the early 2000s.

NYPA’s gas-fired peaker plants, which were installed in 2001 and which include six plants in NYC and one in Long Island, have been controversial since their inception because the plants are all located in low-income communities and communities of color. In a report this May, the PEAK Coalition said that New York City’s gas peaker plants are “perhaps the most egregious energy-related example of what environmental injustice means today.”

Even though most of the NYPA peaker plants run very infrequently – 10% of the time or less – their operation contributes to air pollution in the neighborhoods where they are located.

NYPA and the PEAK Coalition’s collaboration is also a step in the right direction towards accomplishing the goals set out by New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), said Dariella Rodriguez, director of community development at the POINT CDC, a non-profit that serves the Hunts Point section of the South Bronx and a PEAK Coalition partner organization.

New York’s CLCPA requires 70% of electricity to be renewable by 2030 and all electricity to be carbon free by 2040.

To meet the resiliency and reliability needs of New York City, the New York Independent System Operator has said that 80% of the resources that the city uses to meet its peak demand have to be located in New York City.