The New York Independent System Operator on Monday warned federal regulators that granting a waiver from project milestone interconnection requirements for a 650-MW energy storage project being developed by Hecate Grid Swiftsure could set a bad precedent.
NYISO is “generally concerned” that a waiver for Hecate’s project may raise questions regarding the applicability of milestone requirements for other projects, the grid operator said in a filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. NYISO didn’t take a position on the merits of Hecate’s waiver request.
If FERC approves the waiver request, NYISO asked the commission to make clear it is based solely on the circumstances related to Hecate’s project and wouldn’t apply to other projects.
New York’s grid operator, like others, requires project developers to meet milestones for their projects to remain in the interconnection process. The milestones are designed to weed out speculative projects that have little chance of being built.
Hecate Grid, Chicago-based Hecate Energy’s energy storage arm, last month asked FERC to waive a regulatory milestone that takes effect on Aug. 10 for the roughly $300 million project. If it fails to meet the milestone, its battery storage project on Staten Island in New York City will be withdrawn from NYISO’s interconnection queue, according to the company.
Without the waiver, Hecate said it will lose a $15 million security deposit on top of about $1 million it has spent developing the project, causing it to abandon the project.
Hecate is seeking a one year delay in its milestone requirement. It expects to meet the milestone by finishing an environmental review for the project during its permit process at the New York Public Service Commission. Hecate, with roughly 7 GW of storage under development, filed an application for a certificate of public convenience and necessity with the PSC on Monday.
The project would cover about eight acres and interconnect to Consolidated Edison’s sytem, according to the application. It would help meet New York’s goal of having 6 GW of battery storage by 2030 and provide increasingly needed reliability benefits to the New York City area, the company said.
Hecate expects to offer the project in an upcoming solicitation for energy storage to be conducted by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. It expects to start operating the battery storage facility by June 1, 2028, according to the filing.
Hecate said its situation meets FERC’s criteria for waiver requests: the company acted in good faith; the waiver is of limited scope; it addresses a concrete problem; and, it doesn’t have undesirable consequences such as harming third parties.
NYISO agreed that other projects in its interconnection queue will be unharmed in the near-term if FERC grants Hecate’s waiver request.
“However, the longer the delay in satisfying the regulatory milestone, the greater the potential for adverse impacts to other projects due to delays in the project or its inability to proceed,” NYISO said.
Hecate’s proposed one-year delay in meeting the regulatory milestone would be “a reasonable deadline,” the grid operator said.
The Alliance for Clean Energy New York and the New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium supported Hecate’s waiver request.
Hecate asked FERC to make a decision by Aug. 8.
