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

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.

While the PPTN process has been terminated for now, the New York state government will continue working on the building blocks for the state’s future offshore wind transmission infrastructure. In line with this, the PSC has directed Department of Public Service (DPS) staff to incorporate lessons learned from the PPTN process into the review of Clean Energy Standard (CES) solicitation practices, directed by the Commission in the May 2025 CES Biennial Review order.

DPS staff will explore coordinated approaches to planning offshore wind generation and transmission infrastructure that reduce project development risks, promote cost-effective solutions, and maximise reliability and affordability benefits to the state’s ratepayers, the PSC says.

The Commission will also proceed with ongoing work in existing reliability planning processes to identify necessary transmission solutions, including through the Coordinated Grid Planning Process. In this regard, the PSC has directed DPS staff, in coordination with NYSERDA and the NYISO, to identify what clean energy solutions may be available and incorporate these potential solutions into the next CES Biennial Review, scheduled to be issued in 2026.

“One of our most important tasks is to protect consumers”, said New York PSC Chair Rory M. Christian. “Given the uncertainty coming out of Washington regarding offshore wind, we must act to protect consumers by withdrawing our PPTN determination; but this is far from the end of the story. We will continue to press forward regarding infrastructure needs for offshore wind in the future once the federal government resumes leasing and permitting for wind energy generation projects.”

New York currently has 132 MW of offshore wind capacity feeding into its grid, provided by the state’s first offshore wind farm, South Fork, owned by Ørsted.

Empire Wind 1, on which Equinor resumed construction in May after the project was temporarily stopped by the federal government, will bring further 816 MW. Empire Wind 1 will also be the first offshore wind farm to connect to New York City’s grid.

New York also has a third project under construction, the 924 MW Sunrise Wind offshore wind farm that is being built by Ørsted. Sunrise Wind will feed electricity into Long Island and is the first US offshore wind project to use a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission system.

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