New York's first bulk storage round selects eight projects and 950 MW
Serguey Asael Shinder2 min readThe New York State Energy Research and Development Authority has selected eight projects totalling 950 MW in the first of three annual solicitations for "Bulk" energy storage, the state's category for front-of-the-meter systems above 5 MW. The awards were announced on 23 September, alongside the results of a separate land-based renewables round that contracted 13 projects with 719 MW, Energy-Storage.news reported the next day. Each of the three bulk rounds, to be issued by 2027, seeks about a gigawatt.
The programme was ordered by the state Public Service Commission under New York's Energy Storage Roadmap 2.0, which targets 6 GW of storage by 2030. The earlier roadmap delivered on residential and commercial storage but not on large grid batteries, a gap usually attributed to the NYISO market, which lacks the price volatility that pays for merchant batteries in markets such as ERCOT.
The contract is designed for that. Under the Index Storage Credit, NYSERDA sets a guaranteed strike price for energy discharged into NYISO markets: if a project earns more than the strike, it pays the difference back; if it earns less, NYSERDA tops it up. Payments begin at commercial operation, and the projects are expected in service by the end of 2030. The solicitation applied New York's revised fire code, updated in 2024 after a state working group on battery fire safety. NYSERDA did not name developers; the trade publication's research identifies projects by Flatiron, Key Capture Energy, Grid Connected Infrastructure (one with Neoen as co-bidder), Savion and Zenobe, including two in the Bronx and two on Long Island. Seven are four-hour systems; one, in Chautauqua County, is eight hours.
What it means
The Index Storage Credit is a contract for difference applied to storage, and its logic is worth noting beyond New York. It guarantees developers the revenue certainty that financing needs, while returning windfalls to ratepayers if markets turn out more profitable than expected. The state carries the downside risk; the upside is shared back.
The siting is the other signal. Batteries in New York City and on Long Island sit where the grid is most constrained and where fire safety concerns have been loudest, which is why the revised fire code matters. Whether these projects reach service by 2030 will depend less on the contract than on local permitting in exactly those places.