The Exchanges

Q So let's break down a few of these. Let's go to battery storage first. So what are you seeing in terms of cost and deployment trends in the short and medium duration battery space that will, will make batteries an important part of some of these hubs?

A One of the great things about, uh, batteries, lithium ion in particular, is it's commercial, it's scalable. We deployed a couple of large-scale, Each battery system's on Long Island several years ago, and they operate well, uh, and, and operate like peak power plants. That's a great thing. We'll see a lot more, right? So New York has a six gigawatt goal. You know, our modeling suggests, you know, New York will need anywhere from 20 to 40 gigawatts of, of just basically four hour duration batteries. I think we'll continue to see, see deployment of, of short and medium duration. It's really more about getting the, The commercial framework, the regulatory framework, right to do that. We think it can play, uh, play a role on the transmission system as well as look like an energy generation resource. You know, the, the price, obviously the cost of, of batteries has come down substantially over the last decade. That trend has stopped in the last, uh, year or so, um, given supply chain challenges like we've seen in the macro economy generally. But, uh, overall we expect that to continue, uh, over the long term and make it a, uh, an economic resource. And then things like the, the IRA are important, uh, important, uh, to provide the investment tax credit for storage to make those even more economic.

AI assessment note: “the cost of, of batteries has come down substantially over the last decade.”

Q And a lot of this development is contingent on the ability to develop new transmission lines or upgrade existing transmission lines. How vital is transmission for some of these planned hubs? And, you know, what lessons have we learned about how best to develop transmission to make this as smooth as possible and get these hubs online as quickly as you can?

A So transmission is absolutely critical. If we connect using Long Island again as an example, it'll have more offshore wind than it needs, uh, many, many times of the year. And so, you know, having that transmission connection to the rest of the state so you can move, move the power from where, uh, it's being, uh, produced or injected in Long Island to where it's needed, uh, in the rest of the state is absolutely critical. So to put it in, in numbers, We see about 20 gigawatts of additional transmission capacity, you know, through to 20 50, both within and connecting New York to, to other regions. If you didn't have that, you would need about 15 gigawatts of dispatchable emissions-free resources on Long Island. Now, there's only about five, five gigawatts of, uh, of generation capacity on Long Island today, so, uh, you know, an additional 15 gigawatts, it'd be, uh, quite a bit, um, so that transmission is, is absolutely critical to ensure that we're, we're making the best use of the, the energy resources and connecting those energy resources to, to the demand.

AI assessment note: “So transmission is absolutely critical.”

Q So the development of offshore wind is picking up in the U.S. We are still very much in the early innings. How would you characterize where your offshore wind investments are right now, and what are we looking at for development timelines?

A So I'd say, you know, first, offshore wind, and one of the, the primary reasons why National Grid got involved in offshore wind is it will be the single largest source of Uh, like it is for, um, you know, many parts of Europe. Uh, so it's, it's, it's an absolutely critical resource. Uh, in terms of development timelines, and I should say we're, you know, extremely happy, proud to partner with RWE and secure the lease area in the New York Bight that can host over three gigawatts of capacity, and that joint venture is called Community Offshore Wind. Um, you know, in terms of development timelines, you know, it, It takes a long time, ah, to put these projects together. And in the U.S., it's not just about, you know, developing an energy project, it's about developing the supply chain and the logistics infrastructure necessary. So, ah, we're planning to have our first phase of community offshore wind online by, ah, around 2030, ah, so about seven years from now. That's going as, as quickly as we can, ah, to get, to get that online. Uh, so it takes some time, but, you know, it's great to see the opportunities that offshore wind, uh, provides to the region, not just in terms of clean energy, but again, in terms of, uh, supply chain. So, you know, New York in particular, uh, is really focused on bringing manufacturing of, uh, of turbines. So our proposal included, uh, working with GE …

AI assessment note: “planning to have our first phase of community offshore wind online by, ah, around 2030”

Q Tell me about what you're imagining for green hydrogen investments, and what does it mean for your operating infrastructure?

A Yeah, great, great question. I, we've been doing a lot, uh, around hydrogen the last few years. You know, it looks like it'll be a great building block for clean fuels, right? So I think that the question around hydrogen is timing, uh, timing to scale it in a commercial way. Uh, in terms of uses, you know, we certainly see hydrogen as a great fuel for, uh, segments of transportation, so medium and heavy duty transport. Uh, industry, uh, but we also see, uh, power generation applications, and so using hydrogen as an energy storage medium to be able to, to run power generation for longer periods of time than, than lithium ion batteries, right? So multiple days, uh, when the wind's not blowing, the sun's not shining, uh, we see hydrogen as a, as a viable alternative for that. And then also in some heating applications, right? So as these clean fuels are developed for other sectors of the economy, uh, that will become an economic, commercial, commercially viable, scaled resource that can be used, uh, in heating applications where other options, uh, don't work as well.

AI assessment note: “using hydrogen as an energy storage medium to be able to, to run power generation”