October 19, 2013
New York

LIPA on NY renewables hunt

reNews | 19/10/2013 | renews.biz

The Long Island Power Authority has issued a competitive procurement call for up to 280MW of “on island” renewable energy capacity including offshore wind, solar and fuel cells by 2018.

The New York utility also issued a second request for proposal seeking 1630MW of generation, storage and demand response resources “to replace current peaking generation with a variety of more efficient resources to be in service by 2019″.

LIPA said the two RFPs will help to maintain system reliability while diversifying its resource portfolio.

“These RFPs are part of a balanced and progressive energy strategy for Long Island,” said LIPA chief operating officer John McMahon. “These RFPs are intended to have resources added to the LIPA system that are smaller in size and strategically located to provide the greatest overall value to our customers.”

LIPA said peaking facilities are typically called on to operate for relatively few hours of the year. “The facilities are, however, critical for maintaining system reliability when experiencing periods of extreme heat like we had during the week of July 15 this past summer,” said the utility.

The RFPs come against the background of a long range plan adopted by LIPA trustees that is expected to increase renewable energy projects and energy efficiency to a total of more than 1000 MW by 2022, “making non-fossil energy a material component of the Long Island electric resource profile”.

LIPA has long flirted with offshore wind, issuing an RFP in 2003 for an around 140MW project off Jones Beach that was eventually abandonded in 2007. It has more recently joined forces with ConEd and other NY players to investigate a potential 700MW wind farm off Rockaway Beach (pictured).

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/10/19/lipa-on-ny-renewables-hunt/