Transmission in New York and what improvements need to be made

In New York developers have built ongoing generation, but not enough transmission lines. With the increase of power coming from power plants and renewable energy sources, we have to address this issue. If new transmission lines are not built, this will likely result in additional congestion within the given system. Many transmission lines were built so long ago and are antiquated and the current transmission lines need more than just small scale upgrades. We need to build a new efficient transmission line that fits the needs of this State’s energy needs.
We need to create lines that can withstand higher capacity and energy levels. Although we have enough generation to meet our existing energy needs, we still need to focus on building new transmission lines, because the current grid will not be able to endure the energy flow.
Such construction of transmission lines needs to eventually happen – whether its now, five years from now, or ten years from now. We cannot exist indefinitely on our current system. The massive movement to build renewable energy wind farms in New York by Bloomberg and the State also requires a transformation of the current transmission lines.
Without a doubt, the capital costs of building these lines will be expensive, requiring an incredible amount of financing, and government subsidies. Eventually, such transmission lines may come at an even staggering cost if the costs are later passed onto the customers. It seems worthwhile to investigate a preemptive plan that would address building new transmission lines before it may become an even more expensive endeavor.
Currently, there are a number of different entities that are tackling the transmission issue in New York State. The NY ISO, the City of New York, the NY Transmission Owners, and the State have all put together transmission development plans. We need to find a way to harmonize all these plans so that New York can move forward with a cohesive plan of action with transmission. The State seems to be most able to lead in this case. We need the State office to take the lead on gathering together all of these transmission plans and creating one unified plan of action for the future. Since we only have 1 ISO, this shouldn’t be too difficult a task as other States may find.