For years, advocates of distributed energy have argued that electricity planning should begin closer to where power is used.
Look first at rooftops, parking lots, public buildings, wastewater plants, EV chargers, heat pumps, flexible loads and other local assets. Figure out what they can generate, store or shift before building centralized power plants and transmission lines.
That is bottom-up energy planning — the opposite of the way the grid is currently designed.
Now New York City appears to be warming to the idea of looking local first. And notably, the push is not coming from an environmental department, clean-energy advocacy group or solar trade association.
It is coming from the city comptroller.
A new report, Meeting New York City’s Energy Demand Challenge, from New York City Comptroller Mark Levine recommends that the city adopt a strategy in which city-owned property doubles as an energy asset capable of generating electricity, storing energy, supporting electric vehicle charging, participating in energy markets, and strengthening neighborhood resilience.
In other words, the garage where you park or the school your kids attend also acts as a power plant by virtue of the solar, batteries and other clean energy assets.
Create a portfolio of assets
Importantly, the plan goes beyond just creating more distributed energy to designing a coordinated portfolio of energy assets, which Levine says are apt to attract long-term institutional investors and lower financing and procurement costs.
The plan also could reduce consumer exposure to volatile natural gas prices, the report says, citing a Synapse Energy study that found installing 20 GW of distributed solar and storage by 2035 statewide could lower costs by $1 billion. This comes as one quarter of the city’s households qualify as “energy burdened,” meaning they spend more than six percent of their income on energy.
Another advantage — distributed energy creates resilience, which the city sorely needs as heat waves and severe weather are placing greater stress on the grid. Con Edison reported 80,000 outages across the five boroughs between July 2 and July 3, and 173,700 total between July 2 and July 5 (including Westchester County.)
The city’s starting point
Solar now provides only about 1.5% of the city’s electricity supply. Of the city’s 641.5 MW of installed distributed solar, only about 31 MW is on city-owned buildings.
City studies have already found about 400 MW of battery storage potential on municipally owned parking lots and vacant land, with about 300 MW having passed an initial agency review.
The city also has some large distributed energy projects in the works or in operation.
At Wards Island, the Department of Environmental Protection is advancing a 10-MW solar project paired with 10 MW of battery storage at a wastewater treatment facility. The comptroller’s report describes it as potentially the world’s largest clean-energy installation at such a facility.
At Rikers Island, the city has installed a solar canopy that supports electric vehicle charging and supplies power to the grid.
Why bottom-up planning
New York City’s peak demand exceeds 10,000 MW. So even when combining all of its distributed assets, distributed energy falls far short of meeting its needs.
But that is not the point.
Bottom-up energy planning (See the work of Lorenzo Kristov) does not assume that distributed resources will replace the bulk power system. It asks a more practical question: How much pressure can local energy take off the larger system before the city spends more on distant generation, transmission, and other centralized infrastructure?
Indeed, the report points out that major transmission projects, such as the Champlain Hudson Power Express (down when the report was being written) and offshore wind farms like Empire Wind, remain necessary. “But distributed energy resources are equally important to ensuring that power is delivered reliably, affordably, and equitably where it is needed most.”
Side Note: The city’s main utility, Con Edison, also is leveraging the value of local energy. The report notes that the utility has paused new large-scale battery projects across 85% of its territory due to an overwhelming surge in developer requests that the current grid cannot handle. To manage this, the utility is shifting focus toward smaller behind-the-meter batteries located inside buildings to reduce stress on the infrastructure.
How it would work
New York City is already pursuing clean distributed energy on several fronts, and it has no shortage of sites for bottom-up energy planning. It owns 14,900 parcels that make up 14% of the city’s area.
But installing distributed energy in New York City faces many of the barriers found elsewhere: fragmented planning, lengthy permitting, difficult interconnection processes and regulations that have not kept pace with technology.
To overcome these hurdles and leverage the energy potential in these properties, the report makes several recommendations:
Build a citywide solar and storage portfolio. Treat parking lots, fleet depots, wastewater plants, rooftops and other municipal properties as a network of energy assets rather than developing projects one site at a time. The city should coordinate site selection, procurement and interconnection and prioritize projects that offer the greatest reliability and financial value.
Streamline permitting and interconnection. Preserve New York City’s battery-safety standards while making reviews faster and more predictable. The report calls for clearer application checklists, concurrent reviews where possible, defined timelines, better public reporting and closer engagement with Con Edison and state regulators to improve interconnection transparency and cost allocation.
Advance clean-energy legislation. Support state measures that automate solar permitting, expand access to solar for affordable housing and nonprofits, and reduce other regulatory barriers. At the city level, the comptroller backs proposals to expedite permitting for smaller battery systems and identify suitable city-owned sites for storage.
Capture available federal and state funding. Create a centralized “Direct Pay Dashboard” to identify eligible projects and coordinate applications for federal tax incentives. The city should also consider partnerships with developers that have preserved federal tax-credit eligibility, pursue NYSERDA funding and compare direct ownership, leases and public-private partnerships to determine which delivers the best long-term return.
Support the clean-energy workforce. Create a predictable project pipeline, maintain prevailing-wage protections and connect youth education and workforce programs with union apprenticeship and retraining opportunities. The goal is to make distributed energy deployment a stable source of middle-class careers rather than a series of temporary projects.
The report never uses the term “bottom-up energy planning,” but that is effectively the direction it points. It argues that “distributed energy resources are essential to maintaining a reliable and resilient electric grid in a dense urban environment.”
Distributed energy advocates have been saying that for decades. But when a city comptroller says it — and starts viewing rooftops, parking lots, and public buildings as potential energy assets to reduce long-term costs — distributed energy moves from engineering solution to cost-of-living strategy.
