New York Public Service Commission Denies New York Power Authority Petition to Designate Clean Path Transmission Project a Priority Transmission Project

On December 23, 2024, later supplemented on January 24, 2025, the New York Power Authority (NYPA) petitioned the New York State Public Service Commission (Commission) to designate the Clean Path Transmission Project (the Project) as a Priority Transmission Project (PTP) under the Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act (the Act). In its petition, NYPA argued that Project was needed on an expeditious basis to meet the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act’s (CLCPA) goals. A PTP designation would have supported a potential filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to allocate and recover associated costs of the Project—estimated at approximately $5.2 billion. However, on August 14, 2025, the Commission denied the petition on the basis that the Project failed to satisfy the Commission’s criteria for PTP designation.

The Commission adopted its criteria for PTP designation on October 15, 2020. There are three main considerations that a project must demonstrate to be designated a PTP:

1. Support delivery of existing and near-term renewables: “The transmission investment’s potential for unbottling existing renewable generation, as well as projects that are in the [New York Independent System Operator (NYISO)] interconnection process, for delivery to load centers in the State, thereby reducing the amount of new generation that must be constructed to meet the CLCPA Targets.”
2. Urgency of need and value of adoption as PTP over alternatives: “Whether an early in-service date for the transmission investment would: (a) increase the likelihood that the State will meet the CLCPA Targets; and/or (b) enhance the value of recent, ongoing or anticipated distribution; local transmission, and/or bulk transmission investments, and/or help the State realize benefits from such investments because it can be placed in-service sooner [than the NYISO process would allow].” The Commission also noted that factors such as the availability of NYPA rights of way; availability of other rights of way and transmission assets; access to other property for siting of the transmission investment, including State-owned or controlled property; NYPA’s financial resources and access to capital; and other potential benefits could be considered in evaluating NYPA’s ability to meet an early in-service date.
3. Such other criteria deemed by the Commission to be in the public interest.¹

The Project is the electric transmission line portion of the Clean Path New York Project, a 178-mile-long 1,300 megawatt HVDC line running from Delaware County to Queens, which would deliver clean energy directly to New York City while also facilitating integration of offshore wind energy through south to north flows. In support of its petition, NYPA argued constrained infrastructure downstate limits the ability to transfer electricity generated by renewable facilities upstate, where these projects are geographically more feasible to develop. Further, because the Project is already under development and proposed primarily within NYPA’s property and existing rights-of-way, following PTP designation, it could be completed and placed in-service before 2030, more quickly than any other transmission project.

In denying the petition, the Commission reasoned that the legislature, in enacting the Act, acknowledged that the traditional NYISO process can still be an “appropriate vehicle for meeting CLCPA objectives” and based on the facts presented, the Project did not warrant PTP designation.² The criteria for PTP designation is predicated on relieving constraints on delivery of power from existing generation; the Project instead is designed to accommodate new projects that are still pending in the NYISO interconnection queue. Further, the Commission pointed to recent NYISO studies that suggested the Project would only reach a 47 percent utilization level by 2042, compared to the Champlain Hudson Power Express line (also known as the TDI or CHPEI Project), presently under construction, which is expected to achieve a consistent 94 to 95percent utilization rate from 2030 through 2042.³ As such, it was too premature begin charging ratepayers “for transmission facilities that will not begin conducting significant amounts of generation until a point in the future that may be two decades away.”⁴ As such, the Commission concluded it was neither just nor reasonable to impose these costs on New York electric customers.

In denying the Petition, the Commission acknowledged that the CLCPA will necessitate additional renewable generation to support electrification and the need for transmission infrastructure in the state continues. However, the Commission concluded that the PTP designation is needed for projects where there is an urgency, and as proposed, the Project would only support long-term planning objectives. Under the Commission’s rules and regulations, NYPA or other interested stakeholders may seek rehearing of the Commission’s order within 30 days of its issuance. 

If you have any questions regarding the content of this alert, please contact Ekin Senlet, Regulatory Practice Area co-chair, at esenlet@barclaydamon.com; David Solimeno, associate, at dsolimeno@barclaydamon.com; or another member of the firm’s Regulatory or Energy Practice Areas.
                                                                                                   
¹Case 20-E-0197, Proceeding on Motion of the Commission to Implement Transmission Planning Pursuant to the Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act, Order Denying Petition, pp. 3-4 (Issued Aug. 14, 2025) (internal citations omitted). 
² Id. at 33.
³Id. at 34.
⁴Id. at 35.