South Fork Wind Farm starts sending power to LIPA grid - Newsday

South Fork Wind Farm starts sending power to LIPA grid - Newsday
Long Island Environment

South Fork Wind Farm starts sending power to LIPA grid
The final blade is attached to a turbine at the South Fork Wind Farm, one of 12 turbines that are to provide power to LIPA. Credit: Orsted

The $2.01 billion South Fork Wind Farm has begun sending some of its power to the Long Island grid, an early step in the state's plan for a carbon-free power grid in coming decades.

Denmark-based Orsted and New England utility Eversource announced last month the completion of the first of 12 turbines for the South Fork project in the waters off Rhode Island and Massachusetts. That turbine has been sending power to the LIPA grid at East Hampton since Nov. 30, according to people familiar with it.

The remaining 11 turbines under construction are each expected to begin sending power to Long Island via a 56-mile cable connecting at Wainscott in the coming weeks.

State and local officials will be in East Hampton on Wednesday to mark the milestone, which has been more than six years in the making since the LIPA board of trustees approved the project in January 2017. It will be the first utility-scale offshore wind farm in federal waters, and the first of some 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind planned for New York State.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, in a statement, noted New York's "nation-leading efforts to generate reliable, renewable clean energy have reached a major milestone."

In addition to its jobs and power, South Fork Wind will "demonstrate to all that offshore wind is a viable resource New York can harness for generations to come," Hochul said.

The 12-turbine array is expected to cost average LIPA customers around $1.27 a month, according to an estimate from LIPA's 2024 budget, though bigger power users will see a greater impact, and the cost escalates marginally each year over the 25-year life of the contract. The project has an estimated cost of $2,013,198,056, according to the state comptroller's website.

LIPA and South Fork have said the project will provide power for some 70,000 customers, most in the Hamptons, where power usage has been increasing in recent years.

Word of the successful production of power from the South Fork project is an important positive development for the offshore news industry in the U.S. after months of troubling news from mostly European developers who have set large ambitions for U.S. waters.

Orsted itself has been battered by setbacks tied to the soaring cost of materials to build wind turbines and soaring interest rates to finance them — and took the eye-popping step of canceling two projects planned for New Jersey last month. Eversource has said it plans to divest its interest in offshore wind.

Nevertheless, the companies plan to rebid the Sunrise Wind farm project planned for Long Island early next year, which is expected to bring about 924 megawatts of power to the region.

“We’re proud to be New York’s leading offshore wind partner, with our South Fork Wind project making tremendous progress and, together with Sunrise Wind, setting the foundation for future job growth and supply chain investments in the state," an Orsted-Eversource spokeswoman said last week, adding that the South Fork project was expected to announce "first power" in coming days.

"While we review the [Sunrise Wind] request for proposals and determine our next steps, we know that ready-to-build projects like Sunrise Wind are the only offshore wind farms that can be delivered within the next several years, a timeline that would be critical to meeting the state’s 2030 clean energy targets," the Orsted-Eversource spokeswoman said.

LIPA chief Tom Falcone said, "Today marks a significant step toward implementing Gov. Hochul's vision of a sustainable and resilient energy future for New York."

Commercial fishing groups have opposed the project, some calling for compensation for lost fishing grounds that other states have negotiated.

Energy from South Fork Wind won't be stored initially in a large battery unit that was built at the East Hampton substation. That battery experienced a fire in May and is expected to be out of commission until June, officials have said.

The state and LIPA's plan to decarbonize the grid includes wind arrays to replace large fossil-fuel power plants and battery storage units to replace small peak-power generators around Long Island. The East Hampton battery, a five-megawatt, $55-million project, was one of two LIPA contracted for in 2018, the other in Montauk.

South Fork Wind was part of a bigger plan to address power shortages on the South Fork during the summer, one that included demand-reduction programs and the batteries. LIPA also fortified the South Fork grid during the same period in a way that largely addressed the shortfall and cost around $513 million.

The $2.01 billion South Fork Wind Farm has begun sending some of its power to the Long Island grid, an early step in the state's plan for a carbon-free power grid in coming decades.

Denmark-based Orsted and New England utility Eversource announced last month the completion of the first of 12 turbines for the South Fork project in the waters off Rhode Island and Massachusetts. That turbine has been sending power to the LIPA grid at East Hampton since Nov. 30, according to people familiar with it.

The remaining 11 turbines under construction are each expected to begin sending power to Long Island via a 56-mile cable connecting at Wainscott in the coming weeks.

State and local officials will be in East Hampton on Wednesday to mark the milestone, which has been more than six years in the making since the LIPA board of trustees approved the project in January 2017. It will be the first utility-scale offshore wind farm in federal waters, and the first of some 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind planned for New York State.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, in a statement, noted New York's "nation-leading efforts to generate reliable, renewable clean energy have reached a major milestone."

In addition to its jobs and power, South Fork Wind will "demonstrate to all that offshore wind is a viable resource New York can harness for generations to come," Hochul said.

The 12-turbine array is expected to cost average LIPA customers around $1.27 a month, according to an estimate from LIPA's 2024 budget, though bigger power users will see a greater impact, and the cost escalates marginally each year over the 25-year life of the contract. The project has an estimated cost of $2,013,198,056, according to the state comptroller's website.

LIPA and South Fork have said the project will provide power for some 70,000 customers, most in the Hamptons, where power usage has been increasing in recent years.

Word of the successful production of power from the South Fork project is an important positive development for the offshore news industry in the U.S. after months of troubling news from mostly European developers who have set large ambitions for U.S. waters.

Orsted itself has been battered by setbacks tied to the soaring cost of materials to build wind turbines and soaring interest rates to finance them — and took the eye-popping step of canceling two projects planned for New Jersey last month. Eversource has said it plans to divest its interest in offshore wind.

Nevertheless, the companies plan to rebid the Sunrise Wind farm project planned for Long Island early next year, which is expected to bring about 924 megawatts of power to the region.

“We’re proud to be New York’s leading offshore wind partner, with our South Fork Wind project making tremendous progress and, together with Sunrise Wind, setting the foundation for future job growth and supply chain investments in the state," an Orsted-Eversource spokeswoman said last week, adding that the South Fork project was expected to announce "first power" in coming days.

"While we review the [Sunrise Wind] request for proposals and determine our next steps, we know that ready-to-build projects like Sunrise Wind are the only offshore wind farms that can be delivered within the next several years, a timeline that would be critical to meeting the state’s 2030 clean energy targets," the Orsted-Eversource spokeswoman said.

LIPA chief Tom Falcone said, "Today marks a significant step toward implementing Gov. Hochul's vision of a sustainable and resilient energy future for New York."

Commercial fishing groups have opposed the project, some calling for compensation for lost fishing grounds that other states have negotiated.

Energy from South Fork Wind won't be stored initially in a large battery unit that was built at the East Hampton substation. That battery experienced a fire in May and is expected to be out of commission until June, officials have said.

The state and LIPA's plan to decarbonize the grid includes wind arrays to replace large fossil-fuel power plants and battery storage units to replace small peak-power generators around Long Island. The East Hampton battery, a five-megawatt, $55-million project, was one of two LIPA contracted for in 2018, the other in Montauk.

South Fork Wind was part of a bigger plan to address power shortages on the South Fork during the summer, one that included demand-reduction programs and the batteries. LIPA also fortified the South Fork grid during the same period in a way that largely addressed the shortfall and cost around $513 million.

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