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Wide Range of Comments Filed as to Whether Investor-owned Utilities Should Own Generation Facilities, Including Renewable Generation Facilities
NYC Additional Comments on Utility-Owned Renewable Generation – “The City also asserted that utility ownership will not expedite the development or renewable resources, but it could expose customers to upward pressure on their utility bills. With respect to the solicitation process, the City submitted that the process is not flawed, and other factors have caused projects to not be completed. The City’s positions have not changed, and the City respectfully urges the Commission to continue on the course set in the 1990s of promoting and encouraging competition and private investment in generation. Doing so will be in customers’ and the State’s best interests, keep risks on developers and investors rather than customers, help to maintain energy affordability, and encourage innovation.”
Invenergy Comments on UOG – “Invenergy LLC (Invenergy) offers the following comments in response to the Notice Soliciting Comments issued by the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) on January 27, 2026, in the above referenced proceeding (January Notice). In the January Notice, the PSC sought information on potential pros and cons of permitting New York’s investor-owned utilities (IOUs) to re-enter the generation market to develop, build, own and operate renewable generation in New York State and recover their costs through residential rates.
The January Notice supplements a notice soliciting comments on utility-owned generation (UOG) and procurement improvements issued July 30, 2025 (July Notice).3 The July Notice followed shortly upon the PSC termination of the NYC Offshore Wind (OSW) Public Policy Transmission Need (PPTN) following the federal government’s moves to block OSW development and the recognition by the PSC and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) that the State is behind schedule in meeting its climate goals codified in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). These notices were thus, in Invenergy’s opinion, spurred in large part by State’s desire to ascertain ways to accelerate the pace of renewable generation development.
Invenergy is a member of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York (ACE NY) and shares ACE NY’s concerns advanced in the comments in this docket of the Clean Energy Parties (CEP) that granting IOUs unfettered authority to develop, own and operate renewable generation would adversely affect the ability of independent entities to participate on a level playing field in the New York electric system and severely diminish the competitive market. Invenergy files these comments to highlight where it differs from the views expressed in the CEP comments. Invenergy has extensive experience in partnering successfully with IOUs in other jurisdictions pursuant to various commercial structures and believes that a limited program under appropriate conditions could provide benefits to consumers. Ultimately, however, the impediments that have delayed and hampered independent renewable developers (IRD) from bringing to commercial operation renewable generation in the quantities and timeframe needed to meet the CLCPA goals would apply equally to IOUs as to IRDs. Simply authorizing IOUs to own renewable generation will not contribute to faster development of critically needed generation and could well have the opposite effect. Accordingly, Invenergy believes the PSC would be better served by addressing the permitting and financial impediments that have hindered renewable development in New York.
RESA Comments UORG – “At a time when rising consumer costs and affordability are of paramount concern, and particularly when the Commission very recently, or is currently considering ever-growing requests for utility rate increases, it would not be prudent for the Commission to abandon its long-standing pro-competitive policies when the result would likely harm the State’s already beleaguered ratepayers. These same ratepayers overwhelmingly, and regardless of political affiliation, support a competitive system of electricity procurement. RESA urges the Commission to maintain its commitment to competition in the State’s energy sector and prohibit investor-owned utilities from owning generation facilities, including renewable generation facilities.”
NYSEG-RGE Comments on Notice re Utility Ownership of Renewable Generation – “Despite the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s (NYSERDA) competitive solicitations process, market-based procurements have not consistently resulted in the timely construction of renewable generation capacity required to stay on track with state targets. This shortfall reflects challenges driven by exogenous factors outside NYSERDA’s control, including macroeconomic conditions and supply‑chain disruptions that are well documented in this proceeding.
The persistent headwinds that the Companies identified in the October comments (including supply‑chain volatility, financing pressures, and siting and interconnection challenges) continue to impact renewable development across the State. It remains exceedingly challenging for any market-based procurement mechanism to be designed with enough flexibility and resilience to manage these pressures while simultaneously securing large volumes of renewable generation and protecting consumers from excessive costs.
While the State should continue to rely on NYSERDA’s market-based procurements as a pathway for large-scale renewable energy development, that approach alone will not maximize the probability of achieving its energy policy goals. More direct and complementary action is needed, beyond establishing competitive procurement rules and repeatedly revising them in response to emerging challenges that continue to drive significant attrition among contracted projects. As is discussed more fully below, the Companies strongly favor a regulated self-build pathway for utility-owned renewable generation and believe that such approach is the means by which the Companies can best contribute to satisfying the state’s clean energy goals via direct ownership of generation. However, given the scale of renewable generation needed in the coming decades, an all-hands-on-deck approach is warranted. The Commission may therefore wish to consider authorizing development under all proposed pathways to maximize the probability of meeting the state’s targets.”
Read all comments here.
