Subject: Wind Energy Weekly #5 3/3

From: [email-masked] (Howard Smith)
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 93 13:32:00 -0700

(Continued from previous message)

renewable resources proceeding before the Public Service Commission
to meet June 21 and attempt to reach a settlement before going on
to a more formal hearing.

     Judge Jeffrey Stockholm announced June 11 that he would
schedule the settlement meeting, granting a motion from the staff
of the Department of Public Service (DPS) in the proceeding.  The
proceeding has been debating how best to implement a State Energy
Plan provision that calls for New York utilities to install 300 MW
of renewable electric generating capacity by 1998.

     Sources said the move apparently reflects a judgment by the
DPS that the Commission is unlikely to order utilities to install
significant amounts of new renewable capacity.

     AWEA was among several parties filing position papers in the
proceeding June 4.  In the AWEA paper, Northeast Representative Tom
Gray urged the Commission to:

o    "Reaffirm the 300-MW goal . . . and the need to go forward
     with it now, not 10 years from now, as a modest program aimed
     at diversifying New York's energy mix . . .

o    "Undertake collaborative efforts to identify and implement the
     steps that need to be taken to bring renewable . . .
     technologies . . . to the point of large-scale commercial
     readiness . . .

o    "Evaluate the total social cost of existing plants to
     determine where . . . wind . . . might be cost-effectively
     deployed to replace or back down generation from the dirtiest
     plants . . .

     Gray called for specific actions on a wide range of fronts to
position wind as a viable generating option by the beginning of the
next decade, when New York utilities are expected to once again
need new capacity.

     Before then, he said, the state take a series of steps,
including:  encouraging expanded wind resource assessment; making
changes in the pricing of utility resource acquisitions; providing
standard contract terms and conditions for wind developers selling
power to utilities; and providing net billing for wind systems of
50 kW capacity or less.

     AWEA, Gray said, "[has] prepared and [is] ready to offer for
consideration a balanced wind development program we believe the
state and its utilities should undertake."