NYISO PRESS

Apr. 05, 2020 | While the novel coronavirus outbreak has forced many New Yorkers to do their jobs from home, a small number of essential employees are doing the opposite: living at their worksite. Since March 23, operators of the state’s power grid have been camped out in parking lots adjacent to the plants and control rooms that must be staffed 24/7 to keep New York’s lights on.

Apr. 02, 2020 | Think how much worse this coronavirus crisis would be if the power went out. That’s one of the reasons utility operators, the people who run your electricity service, are taking steps to sequester employees in offices, power stations, and control rooms to keep everything running.

Apr. 01, 2020 | Countless people are working from home these days thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. For Jarrett O’Donnell, Jon Sawyer and 35 others, the equation is reversed and their workplace has become their temporary home.

Mar. 31, 2020 | Just outside of Albany, New York, 37 electrical grid operators and support staffers are currently cut off from outside human contact, living two to a trailer, to make sure the state’s power stays on.

Mar. 31, 2020 | As New York struggles with the country’s worst outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the state’s grid operator has taken an extreme step that other parts of the country may have to consider in the weeks ahead: asking critical employees to live and work at the control centers that keep the power grid operating, unsure when they’ll be able to come home.

Mar. 30, 2020 | The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), one of the nation’s nine regional transmission organizations (RTOs) that operate the power grid, now has some of its staff living at two of its control centers in suburban Albany, New York. The move comes as other RTOs and utilities consider having staff shelter-in-place at their respective operations hubs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mar. 30, 2020 | New York's historic decision to require workers to live at facilities operating the state's power grid during the novel coronavirus pandemic may be a test case for the rest of the nation. For the first time, the grid operator has asked more than three dozen workers to live 24 hours, seven days a week at two control centers in the suburbs of Albany, N.Y.

Mar. 27, 2020 | Workers charged with keeping the lights on in New York are now living on-site to avoid the coronavirus. Four teams of control-room operators for the New York Independent System Operator moved into trailers at two sites this week, a voluntary sequestration that could last weeks.

Mar. 26, 2020 | New York's grid operator is seeing historic changes in demand for power as the new coronavirus spreads throughout the state and beyond, grinding travel and daily activities to a halt.

Mar. 23, 2020 | It has been less than a week since states and major cities began instituting quarantines along with stay-home and shelter-in-place directives to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Mar. 19, 2020 | The New York League of Conservation Voters recently joined Carbon Free New York, a coalition of various organizations that supports implementing a social cost of carbon dioxide (CO2) to help decarbonize New York’s electricity sector.

Mar. 03, 2020 | Recent federal regulatory decisions decried by renewable developers as a body blow to the state’s clean energy goals will not impede New York’s clean energy progress in the near term, the chief of the New York Independent System Operator told POLITICO.

Feb. 20, 2020 | The tension between aggressive state-level carbon reduction goals and wholesale competitive electricity markets looks like it may to come to a head in 2020.

Feb. 17, 2020 | The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) has four distinct missions. We maintain and enhance the reliability of New York’s electric grid while operating open and competitive wholesale electricity markets. And we plan for the power system needs of the future while providing data and analysis pertaining to New York’s power system to policymakers and stakeholders.

Feb. 11, 2020 | We read with interest the recent commentary in support of a national carbon price (“Local action isn’t enough; we need carbon pricing to fight climate change,” Feb. 6, 2020). While there is no doubt a national approach would have a far greater impact, the likelihood of that happening in today’s political climate is slim. However, here in New York state we have a homegrown plan that is ready for implementation.

Feb. 11, 2020 | In July 2019, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). This historic act requires the state to meet certain aggressive climate goals for the electricity grid. Those goals include requiring that 70 percent of the electricity consumed in New York State be generated from renewable resources by 2030, and a carbon‐dioxide‐emission‐free electricity system by 2040.

Feb. 11, 2020 | Here are the five energy stories from last week I selected as being particularly noteworthy.

Feb. 06, 2020 | The solar trade association and seven solar developers have endorsed carbon pricing for wholesale electricity in New York, which would boost renewables and help New York meet its carbon goal.

Feb. 05, 2020 | A new coalition of clean energy groups, utilities, labor organizations and environmentalists said this week it would campaign for a carbon price in New York, adding weight to a parallel push by the state's grid operator.

Feb. 04, 2020 | Across the country, policymakers at all levels of government are exploring initiatives to address climate change. New York State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act remains one of the most ambitious, with its requirement that “the statewide electrical demand system will be zero emissions” by 2040.