NY Gung Ho on Building Energy Infrastructure
Governor says private sector up to task
Will building new wires to carry much needed power into New York State get underway? Industry is hopeful now that the state’s governor has weighed in.
Transmission Developers President (TDI) and CEO Don Jessome told Energy Central that the company is “encouraged” by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plans involving a private sector funded $2 billion “Energy Highway” system.
TDI has proposed the Champlain-Hudson Power Express Project, which is a 385-mile, 320-kV line that originates at the U.S./Canadian border and ends in New York City. The project will cost about $2 billion and will bring up to 1,000 MW of wind and hydro to the New York metro area.
“The ‘Energy Highway’ sounds like a very interesting and much needed system,” Jessome told this reporter last week. “We completely agree with the governor’s position that new infrastructure is required in order to meet the demands in the southern portion of New York State. We need to learn more about what this RFP process is going to look like. We will be intently following this process and see if our project may or may not be able to be part of the process.”
In his 2012 State of the State Address delivered Jan. 4, Cuomo announced his plan to build the “Energy Highway” system that will tap into the generation capacity and renewable energy potential in upstate and western New York to bring low-cost power to downstate New York.
Cuomo said the state will issue requests for proposals to implement a master plan to power its needs for the next half-century.
“I can’t say what the governor was or was not speaking specifically about, but we are very encouraged by what he had to say and we look forward to learning more of what his thinking is,” Jessome said.
The company continues with the regulatory process at the state, specifically the Article 7 process that deals with major electric and gas transmission facilities.
“We’re hopeful that the work that’s been done since late 2010 is going to be culminating shortly in what’s called a joint proposal between all the parties who are in our case,” Jessome said. “We are also in a federal process, both the Department of Energy and the Army Corps of Engineers, and those processes will ramp up once we have finalized the state level processes. We’re looking to have a financial close in 2013, with an in-service date of 2016.”
Comments
It is a good thing...
...NY is not in a big hurry for the additional transmission capacity. It appears that, if the schedule discussed above is actually met, approvals would have taken as long as construction.
I am reminded, in cases like this, of a sign I saw many years ago in a "while-u-wait" shoe repair shop: "It takes 10 minutes to repair your shoes, now or two weeks from now." I understand that major transmission project review is not a 10 minute process. However, there appears to be no reason, though perhaps many excuses, why it should take as long as the actual construction. Major transmission projects have been built previously. They are complex, but they are not rocket surgery or brain science. Neither is the review and approval process.