National Grid weighs repowering power plants in Northport, Port Jeff, Island Park

National Grid is giving serious consideration to repowering three of Long Island’s biggest electric-generating plants, citing a changed state outlook for chiefly gas-fired units and its own modeling that shows new plants on the sites would run more efficiently at lower cost.

The plan, if pursued, would breathe new life into a concept LIPA has studied for decades, but ultimately decided against following 2017 studies. At the time, LIPA decided to shelve the repowering plans because the utility had projected power-use reductions and an influx of renewables onto the grid.

But plans for some of the biggest renewable projects, including vast offshore wind farm arrays, have been stalled or withdrawn following opposition from the Trump administration, and New York State has taken on an "all-of-the-above" energy approach that calls for tapping the brakes on fossil fuel plant retirements. That approach has been criticized by environmental groups, which want Gov. Kathy Hochul to maintain the state’s aggressive targets for an emission-free grid by 2040.

In an interview Wednesday, Will Hazelip, president of National Grid Ventures, which owns the plants and operates them under contract to LIPA, said the company was in the early stages of modeling the costs, impacts and overall feasibility of upgrading the power stations at Northport, Port Jefferson and Island Park. The concept: replace the half-century-old plants with the newest, most efficient power generators available. Power capacity of the units could even be increased, he said.

"We’ve been looking at it from a high level and see that it makes a lot of sense because there are quite a few benefits," Hazelip said.

Under early modeling scenarios, each of the three plants would be considered for a repowering that replaces old steam-generating plants with more modern technology such as combined-cycle units that burn considerably less fuel and produce power more efficiently, while using considerably less water for cooling. Caithness Long Island Energy, another plant under contract to LIPA, is a combined cycle plant.

Hazelip said converting from the old steam-generating plants would sharply reduce emissions, particularly when they run on natural gas, though he suggested state regulators would likely continue to require fuel-oil backup at the facilities.

Modeling also shows that wholesale power from the plants would less expensive in repowered units, he said.

"We’d be able to produce more megawatt-hours at lower costs," he said. "That will bring wholesale electric prices down, have a net positive impact on customer bills and will increase reliability."

Michael Kaufman, vice chairman of the Suffolk County Planning Commission,   said current market conditions make the concept of repowering "an excellent idea. We should have done it 15 years ago, just in terms of greater fuel efficiency."

"It’s an advantage in efficiency, in lower fuel costs, and in energy security on the Island," he said, adding that repowering could also address tax-base concerns from communities in which plants are located.

But Peter Gollon, a former LIPA trustee and a green energy advocate for the Sierra Club, said repowering all the big plants would commit LIPA to a fossil fuel future and volatile energy pricing — ideas he opposes.

"You force yourself into a 20-year plan of relying on fossil fuel plants which is what I think the gas company wants," he said. "And you still have the volatility of gas prices."

He urged LIPA to conduct an independent study "to see what’s the best way to get out of this without binding LIPA to new fossil fuel plants." Wind and solar, he said, remain viable power sources not subject to wild price volatility.

National Grid’s current $4.8 billion contract to operate the plants for LIPA expires in 2028. And while the prospect of repowering the plants could certainly impact terms of the contract, Hazelip said the plan to repower would happen on a separate track.

"We don’t know if it would be part of that discussion" with LIPA, he said. That contract includes smaller power plants called "peakers" scattered across Long Island, many of which also need upgrading but likely would not be immediately overhauled. "We’re really focused on continuing to operate and maintain the existing fleet. We will continue to do that with whatever contract structure we end up with LIPA," he said.

Told of National Grid’s plans, LIPA in a statement said it was "evaluating all available resource options to meet future system needs, including a range of supply-side and demand-side solutions. Any future actions will be informed by detailed analysis, stakeholder engagement, and a clear focus on affordability and value for ratepayers."

LIPA in an interview with Newsday in the fall said it too was reexamining its power resource map with an eye toward an "all-of the-above" energy approach articulated by Hochul, which includes hitting the brakes on fossil fuel plant retirements and building more nuclear power upstate. LIPA at the time said repowering older plants was under consideration, and sites such as the E.F. Barrett plant in Island Park could be candidates.

Whether the plan would involve demolishing the old plants remains an open question, National Grid said.

There’s "flexibility to decide whether to retire and demolish old infrastructure or keep that existing infrastructure around for a time as back up," the company said in a follow-up email.

"We’ve got to keep the existing generation around" during the transition, Hazelip said. "We have to be able to build new generation without retiring the existing [and] we can do that at several of our sites."

LIPA in 2017 released a series of studies for repowering the old plants that considered a range of options, from doing so in stages to keep needed plants operating through the transition to so-called backyard repowering that foresaw new plants installed on power station property while the old kept generating.

Northport, Long Island’s largest plant, has four main steam-generating units built between 1967 and 1977, rated at a combined 1,500 megawatts. The 250-acre station has 75 available acres for a repowering, according to LIPA’s 2017 study.

The E.F. Barret station has big steam turbines rated at a combined 390 megawatts and was built between 1956 and 1963, plus 265 megawatts of smaller gas turbines known as peakers. Port Jefferson has two steam units rated at a combined 380 megawatts, built between 1958 and 1960, and a smaller peaker rated at 12 megawatts, according to LIPA’s study.

Repowering Island Park and Port Jefferson plants would have cost $2.9 billion at the time, the LIPA study found. Repowering Northport would have cost $1.2 billion to $2.1 billion. At the time, the study found "no compelling reason" to repower the station.

But the power outlook has changed dramatically in the decade since.

Repowering "any of those sites would reduce wholesale electric prices, increase reliability and reduce emissions," Hazelip said. "We see a savings because of the efficiency of the combined cycle [plants] in particular."

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.