Clean Energy for New York

Riverkeeper
Natural Resources Defense Council
Project closed March 2017

Synapse was engaged by Riverkeeper and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to analyze replacement energy and capacity resources associated with the retirement of the Indian Point Energy Center (IPEC). Synapse utilized the National Renewable Energy Laboratory ReEDS modeling system to estimate an economically optimal expansion of renewable energy resources in New York that would (i) meet Clean Energy Standard (CES) requirements; (ii) achieve required energy and capacity requirements with IPEC retired so as to maintain reliability, and (iii) track the energy production and capacity expansion costs of meeting all New York State requirements during the period 2016 to 2030. Our analysis found that the most cost‐effective replacement resource scenario includes an increase in the level of energy efficiency procurement in New York State above and beyond assumed CES levels, towards the most aggressive, achievable energy efficiency levels that NYSERDA and New York utilities can achieve. Increased levels of energy efficiency investment—and clear direction from the Public Service Commission to ensure those levels in fact materialize—will reduce the cost of achieving the CES’s 50 percent by 2030 renewable energy requirement.