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New York awarded state contracts to eight grid battery projects totaling 950 MW, its largest storage procurement push yet. The contracts provide 15 years of revenue certainty through a market-based mechanism designed to make battery projects financeable, addressing the revenue instability that has stalled large-scale storage in the state.
New York has awarded state contracts to eight grid battery projects totaling 950 megawatts, the state’s most aggressive step yet toward breaking a years-long impasse that has left it with barely any large-scale energy storage despite a 2040 clean-electricity mandate. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) selected the winners from 46 bids and structured the deals to provide the long-term revenue certainty that private markets in the state have so far failed to deliver, according to a Canary Media report.
The winning developers include Flatiron Energy, Grid Connected Infrastructure, Key Capture Energy, Savion, and Zenobē. The projects are expected to add 950 MW of non-emitting, on-demand power by 2030, progress toward New York’s target of 6 gigawatts of storage by 2030. NYSERDA plans to run two more solicitations of the same design to sustain momentum.
Unlike traditional subsidy programs, the contracts do not hand developers large upfront payments. Instead, each applicant submitted a strike price reflecting the revenue needed to justify building the project. Once operational, NYSERDA calculates a monthly reference rate for what a battery in that zone should have earned based on real wholesale market prices. “If the wholesale markets are lower than what the project needs, then NYSERDA tops us up,” said Amit Barnir, vice president of network infrastructure at Zenobē, which won a contract for a 100-MW battery in Burns, New York. “On the flip side of that, if we are generating more than what the project needs, we actually pay back NYSERDA.”
NYSERDA said projects had to demonstrate that they were “competitively priced, is mature and viable, can provide electric system value, and spurs in-state economic activity” to win an award. Settlement occurs at the zonal level while projects earn revenue at the nodal level, giving operators an incentive to pick advantageous grid locations — Zenobē, for instance, sited its battery next to a 100-MW AES solar plant feeding the same substation, positioning it to charge on cheap solar power and discharge during high-price peak hours.
Stakes for New York’s 2040 Clean Grid
The awards matter because New York cannot reach its 2040 clean-electricity mandate without large-scale storage. Batteries allow the grid to absorb variable wind and solar output and shift it to peak demand hours, displacing the fossil-fuel plants that currently fill those gaps. With only 80 MW of bulk storage operational as of March, the state is starting nearly from scratch, and this procurement is the first mechanism shown capable of attracting major developer capital at scale.
The contract design also carries broader consequences for ratepayers and the regional clean-energy economy. Because developers pay NYSERDA back when market earnings exceed their strike price, the structure is designed to cap costs for consumers while still guaranteeing the revenue stream lenders require — a model that other states watching New York’s stalled storage market could replicate. The 950 MW of projects also represent in-state construction jobs and grid investment, and their success or failure will signal whether New York’s remaining path to 6 GW by 2030, roughly six times this procurement, is realistic.
Why Big Batteries Stalled Until Now
New York adopted its first formal storage target in 2018, but market dynamics in the statewide grid system have not supported battery development on their own. The capacity market offers only six months of predictable revenue, which the report notes makes it hard to convince financiers to back a 20-year battery investment, and utility procurement attempts over the years largely failed.
NYSERDA’s 2022 Energy Storage Roadmap proposed a centralized state procurement to jump-start progress; the state’s utility regulator did not approve the plan until June 2024. The solicitation was released in July 2025. As of March, New York had just 80 MW of operational bulk storage plus roughly 335 MW of small-scale batteries — far short of the state’s earlier goal of 1,500 MW by 2025, though officials claimed success by counting projects that had been awarded or contracted but not yet built.
“If the wholesale markets are lower than what the project needs, then NYSERDA tops us up… if we are generating more than what the project needs, we actually pay back NYSERDA.”
— Amit Barnir, VP of network infrastructure at Zenobē
Unproven: Can Contracts Deliver Construction
The central open question is whether the new contract structure actually translates into steel in the ground. New York has previously counted awarded-but-unbuilt projects toward its storage goals, and none of the eight projects has been constructed. Whether the 950 MW arrives by 2030 depends on permitting, interconnection, financing, and construction, none of which is assured.
The financial design also carries risks: developers who bid strike prices too low in order to win could struggle to profit long-term, while ratepayer costs will depend on how wholesale market prices compare to contract strike prices — figures NYSERDA has not detailed in the reporting available. The timing of the two additional planned solicitations has not been announced.
Next Solicitations and Buildout Timeline
NYSERDA plans to run two more solicitations modeled on this one to keep scaling toward the 6 GW by 2030 goal, though dates have not been set. The eight winning developers will move toward financing and construction, with Zenobē’s 100-MW Burns project, for example, to be co-located with an AES solar plant at the same substation. Observers will be watching whether the projects reach operation on schedule and whether the model’s 15-year revenue certainty proves sufficient to finally unlock large-scale battery building in the state.
Key Questions
How much battery storage does New York have right now?
As of March, New York had roughly 80 MW of operational bulk storage and about 335 MW of small-scale batteries — well short of its earlier 1,500 MW by 2025 goal.
How do the new NYSERDA contracts work?
Developers submitted a strike price reflecting the revenue they need. NYSERDA then calculates a monthly reference rate based on real market prices: if market earnings fall short, NYSERDA tops up the developer; if earnings exceed the strike price, the developer pays NYSERDA back. The contracts run for 15 years.
Do the contracts mean the batteries will actually get built?
Not necessarily. The contracts provide revenue certainty meant to make projects financeable, but construction still depends on permitting, interconnection, and financing. New York has previously fallen short after counting awarded-but-unbuilt projects toward its goals.
Who won the contracts?
Eight developers won, including Flatiron Energy, Grid Connected Infrastructure, Key Capture Energy, Savion, and Zenobē, selected from 46 bids.
Why did New York need state intervention for batteries?
The state’s capacity market offers only six months of predictable revenue, which makes 20-year battery investments hard to finance, and utility procurement attempts largely failed. The centralized procurement was approved by regulators in June 2024 to fix that.
Source: rss
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