New York State Stops Offshore Wind Transmission Development Until ‘Federal Conditions Allow’

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The New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) has decided to “strategically terminate” the Public Policy Transmission Need (PPTN) process for offshore wind transmission infrastructure. The PSC says this is due to the federal government halting new offshore wind permitting, and that cancelling the process ensures New York State ratepayers are protected by avoiding premature costs.

The New York PSC said on 17 July that it was recalibrating the timeline for offshore wind transmission development so New York State ratepayers are not burdened with premature infrastructure costs while preserving the flexibility to act quickly as soon as federal conditions allow.

The PSC declared a Public Policy Transmission Need to support the integration of between 4.77 GW and 8 GW of offshore wind into New York City in June 2023. In April 2024, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) launched a solicitation for the NYC PPTN Transmission Project(s) to connect the almost 4.8 GW of offshore wind generation capacity to the state grid.

NYISO, which had been evaluating the submitted solutions since April last year, was expected to select the transmission developer(s) in the fourth quarter of this year, and NYSERDA, which planned to launch the sixth offshore wind solicitation in the first quarter of 2026, opened consultation at the beginning of this year on the possibility of procuring “generation-only” projects where the (offshore) grid connections would be implemented through the New York City PPTN Transmission Project.

The Commission decided to rescind its transmission need determination and terminate the NYISO’s evaluation process as a result of uncertainty created by federal decisions to halt the permitting and construction of offshore wind farms , which “make achieving New York’s offshore wind goal impossible in the near term and undermine the central purpose of the transmission solicitation” , the PSC says.