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Assembly Member Claire Valdez and several officials signed an open letter urging Con Edison to revise its interconnection fees for battery energy storage systems (BESS) in New York City. Critics claim these fees hinder BESS development by making it prohibitively expensive to connect to the grid, effectively creating an 'effective moratorium' on new projects.

Con Edison argues the fees are necessary to prevent grid overload from clustered BESS installations, which could create new peak demands. Supporters emphasize that BESS can help mitigate blackouts and reduce energy costs. The Utility Customers Association requests a rollback of recent changes to interconnection policies, which they say have led to a near-total freeze on new BESS deployments.