New York Working on 6th Offshore Wind Solicitation Design for ‘Generation-Only’ Projects

January 15, 2025, by Adrijana Buljan

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is currently conducting consultation with the offshore wind market on the design of the state’s sixth solicitation which could be launched in the first quarter of 2026. The consultation primarily concerns the possibility of procuring “generation-only” projects where the (offshore) grid connections would be implemented through the New York City PPTN Transmission Project.

NYSERDA issued a Request for Information (RFI) on 18 December 2024 to solicit feedback from potential bidders to inform the development of the sixth offshore wind solicitation (NY6) which will seek to optimise coordination between offshore wind projects and transmission projects selected through a solicitation from the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO). The deadline to respond to the RFI was 29 January but NYSERDA has now extended the consultation period until 19 February.

The New York Public Service Commission (PSC) declared a Public Policy Transmission Need (PPTN) to support the integration of an additional 4,770 MW of offshore wind into New York City in June 2023. In April 2024, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) launched a solicitation for the NYC PPTN Transmission Project(s) to connect the almost 4.8 GW of offshore wind generation capacity to the state grid.

NYSERDA released the RFI for the forthcoming offshore wind project allocation round to gather feedback to better understand how the NY6 solicitation should be designed to maximise the value of the PPTN if approved to do so by the New York Public Service Commission.

In the RFI, NYSERDA says it currently plans to launch the sixth offshore wind solicitation to leverage integration with the NYC PPTN Transmission Project so the NY6 round launch date will be set to follow the resolution of the NYC PPTN solicitation process.

NYISO is expected to select the transmission developer(s) in the fourth quarter of this year and NYSERDA plans to open the sixth Offshore Wind Renewable Energy Certificate (OREC) solicitation in the first quarter of 2026.

“NYSERDA may or may not allow for radial offshore wind projects inclusive of generation and export infrastructure and interconnection with the onshore grid to be bid into NY6. Furthermore, the design of NY6 may or may not vary from NY5 and other prior solicitations in various ways. The design elements included in this RFI relate specifically to how NYSERDA is considering approaching generation-only projects in NY6, if approved by the Commission”, the state agency states in the RFI.

The NY5, the fifth offshore wind generation capacity solicitation in New York, is currently in its final stages with NYSERDA expected to announce the winners soon.

The state received a total of 25 proposals from four developers in the fifth offshore wind solicitation who submitted finalised proposals in October 2024.

New York Bidders File Final Proposals, RWE Plans 2.8 GW Offshore Wind Farm

Planning & Permitting

Ørsted filed a proposal for Long Island Wind, planned to have a generation capacity of up to 1,485 MW. A joint venture between RWE and National Grid Ventures proposed the Community Wind project that would have a generation capacity of up to 2.8 GW and would be built in two phases by 2032. Vineyard Offshore (Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners) bid with its 1,314 MW Excelsior Wind project and the consortium of TotalEnergies, Rise Light & Power and Corio proposed Attentive Energy One (AE1) with a nameplate capacity of 1,275 MW.