PRESS RELEASE | The NYISO’s Comprehensive Reliability Plan Highlights Emerging Risks on the Grid
Rensselaer, NY – The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) today released its 2025-2034 Comprehensive Reliability Plan (CRP), which finds that the electric grid is at an inflection point driven by the convergence of three major trends: the rapid growth of large loads, (e.g.: microchip manufacturing and AI-related data centers); the aging generation fleet; and a lack of new dispatchable generation resources being added to the system. The CRP is issued biennially, identifying and addressing emerging risks to reliability on the electric system.
The CRP highlights that the future reliability of the grid depends on the development of flexible generation capable of performing during extended periods of high consumer demand and extreme weather. The report examines lessons-learned from the June 2025 heatwave and the need for a planning framework that better reflects present challenges of operating the grid while anticipating plausible future risks.
“The system requires additional dispatchable generation to serve forecasted increases in consumer demand,” said Zach Smith, Senior Vice President, System and Resource Planning. “We also need to refine and evolve our planning processes to better reflect this period of great change on the grid and a broader range of plausible future outcomes.”
The CRP demonstrates that due to emerging reliability challenges, traditional planning methods built around a single forecast are no longer sufficient. To maintain system reliability and protect public safety, the economy and quality of life, the CRP recommends actions that will strengthen planning processes across a broad spectrum of system conditions and advance needed investment before reliability margins disappear.
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.