PRESS RELEASE | NYISO Report Highlights Need for New Generation and Transmission Investment to Meet Growing Demand and State Policy Targets

The Outlook evaluates several scenarios reflecting different assumptions about demand growth, resource development, technology availability, and public policy implementation. Across those futures, the analysis shows that demand growth is outpacing resource additions; firm, flexible resources remain essential; and transmission capability increasingly determines whether new resources can deliver power to consumers when and where needed.

“The System & Resource Outlook highlights the scale and urgency of the investments needed to reliably serve New York’s future electricity needs,” said Zach Smith, Senior Vice President of System and Resource Planning. “Rising demand, generator retirements, and public policy choices all point to the need for new resources and stronger transmission. An all-of-the-above approach to energy development, supported by competitive wholesale electricity markets, will be critical to maintaining grid reliability through this transition.”

The Outlook is a scenario-based planning study intended to help policymakers, regulators, market participants, and developers understand how different policy choices can shape New York’s future resource mix, transmission needs, system costs, and reliability risks over the next 20 years.

Key findings from the Outlook include:

• New York’s electricity demand is expected to grow over the next two decades, driven by electrification and emerging large loads that increase total energy needs and reshape when and where demand occurs.
• All scenarios require significant new generation, and policy-driven scenarios require far more installed capacity than exists today to reliably meet demand.
• Transmission capability is increasingly central to system performance, public policy achievement, congestion reduction, and the ability of new resources to serve consumers.
• The Outlook also shows that the final increments of emissions reductions carry the greatest infrastructure challenges. Scenarios that move from 95 percent to 100 percent emissions-free electricity require substantially more investment in replacement resources and anticipate technologies not yet available at commercial scale. By comparison, other scenarios that also lower emissions significantly do so with much lesser investment in generation and transmission.

Based on these findings, the NYISO identifies four priorities to support reliable grid operations as demand grows and the resource mix changes:

• Establish a viable path for developing firm, flexible resources needed to maintain reliability;
• Coordinate the timing of new resources, repowering opportunities, and retirements to reduce transition risk;
• Reduce congestion and increase transfer capability across the Central East interface through targeted enhancements; and
• Support zero-emissions generation development in Northern New York with bulk transmission upgrades that improve deliverability.

View the full 2025-2044 System & Resource Outlook to learn more.

About the New York ISO

The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) is a not-for-profit corporation responsible for operating the bulk electricity grid, administering the competitive wholesale electricity markets, conducting comprehensive long-term planning, and advancing the technological infrastructure of the electric system serving the Empire State.