The New York Independent System Operator’s latest warning about a pending lack of power availability in New York City starting in 2025 is getting attention from Republicans and power producers.

The ISO recently released its second quarter Short-Term Assesment Assessment of Reliability Report (STAR). The quarterly report gives the state of the electric grid’s reliability and is the ISO’s way of showing how reliable the grid is as the state implements the Climate Change and Community Protection Act. The STAR report projects the grid’s reliability in five-year increments.

This isn’t the first time the ISO has sounded an alarm about reliability in the New York City area starting in 2025, but the most recent report confirms the first quarter report. The deficit is as large as 446 megawatts, driven primarily by the combination of a forecasted increase in peak demand and the unavailability of certain generators. Beyond 2025, the STAR report found that New York City’s reliability margin would improve when the Champlain Hudson Power Express transmission line from Quebec to New York City is completed. The transmission line is expected to enter service in the spring of 2026 — but delays in the transmission line could extend the shortage of available power in New York City.

“This new STAR report reflects the extraordinary challenges of the grid in transition,” said Zach Smith, the New York ISO’s vice president of system and resource planning. “The reliability of the electric system is essential to the health and safety for all New Yorkers as well as the state’s economy. The NYISO will now work to identify solutions to the reliability need identified in New York City.”

One solution is to postpone the scheduled retirement of natural gas power plants in compliance with the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Peaker Rule adopted in 2019 that requires peaker plants to adopt more stringent pollution controls by 2023 and 2025. Peaker plants are operated during the year’s hottest months when electrical demand is the highest. The pollution controls required are expensive enough to prompt many of those power plants to be retired.

The ISO’s tariff overseen by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission states the ISO’s finding of a reliability need initiates a process administered by the ISO to bring reliability margins back to acceptable operating levels. The ISO will begin the process immediately by working with the local utility and the marketplace to identify and evaluate possible solutions. That could mean bypassing the Peaker Rule and keeping the peaker plants operating until more wind and solar power is installed in the New York City area.

“The pace of play is not keeping up with pace of promises, and this report makes that clear,” said Gavin Donohue, Independent Power Producers of New York president and CEO. “There have been repeated cautions from the NYISO regarding grid reliability, and this report highlights the reality that generator retirement cannot outpace the addition of new generation with the attributes needed by the NYISO to maintain reliability. This report should draw attention from state officials in shaping realistic public policies. I encourage the NYISO to identify solutions that are market-based so we can set ourselves on the pathway to a cleaner energy future, while maintaining the reliability of our grid at affordable rates.”

The ISO’s report also gained attention from state Senate Republicans, who have submitted comments to the state Public Service Commission asking the commission to include more sources of energy and technologies as zero emissions. Senators Rob Ortt, Mark Walczyk, Mario Mattera and Tom O’Mara want to see hydrogen, nuclear, renewable natural gas, bioenergy and sewer heat recovery considered as renewable energy because, in their view, they provide more reliable power than wind and solar while in some cases taking up less land than solar and wind farms.

“As a conference, we have advocated for a comprehensive reliability study to ensure the State’s electricity grid can handle the mandates under the CLCPA and recommendations made in the Climate Action Council’s Scoping Plan for transitioning to a zero emissions electricity grid by 2040. We have also advocated for an approach of using any energy source which will help the State reduce emissions,” the Senators wrote in their comments.