NYPA's Kessel eyes wind farm, underwater cable

Newly named New York Power Authority chief executive Richard Kessel is drawing up a 10-year plan that includes a wind farm "of significant size" off the Atlantic coast and a new sub-Atlantic power cable, he said Thursday.

The wind farm would be in addition to another under discussion off the coast of the Rockaways by Con Edison and the Long Island Power Authority, which Kessel ran for more than a decade. "I think we can look farther out than that" project, he said about the project's distance from shore. A previous wind farm backed by Kessel while at LIPA was scrapped, but he noted, "I've never given up on the idea."

Kessel took over at NYPA, the nation's largest state-owned power company, last month. Among ideas he's considering to increase power transmission between upstate and downstate New York: a transmission line under the New York State Thruway.

Several factors could impact the projects. While Kessel pointed to a mandate by Gov. David A. Paterson that 25 percent of the state's energy come from renewable sources by 2013, the state now faces billions in budget deficits in coming years. And plummeting oil and gas prices in recent months may reduce the financial appeal of wind energy, which can be up to three times more costly to build and run than fossil-fuel plants. Kessel said the economy-boosting impact of numerous NYPA projects could offset those factors.

Kessel envisions a NYPA-backed wind farm being built under a "downstate partnership" among NYPA, New York City, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, LIPA and the Port Authority. The city and the MTA are major users of NYPA-provided power, as are municipal power companies in Freeport and Rockville Centre.

Kessel said he has already had a phone conversation with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg about the wind farm, which he envisions producing between 200 and 500 megawatts of power - potentially 150 turbines. A Bloomberg spokesman said the mayor and Kessel will meet on the topic in coming weeks.

Kessel said he's not tied to any specific Atlantic location. The 10-year plan will be presented early next year as part of a statewide energy plan requested by Paterson.

At LIPA, Kessel proposed what would have been one of the nation's first offshore wind farms, but the 140-turbine plan lost steam when costs ballooned beyond $800 million and residents complained it was too near the shore. By the time work could begin on any NYPA-backed project in five years, he said, offshore technology could allow his project to be 10 to 20 miles from the coast - beyond the point of visibility. He successfully pushed for the Neptune cable, which has the capacity to bring more than 600 megawatts from cheaper, off-island sources.

Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, a backer of the original LIPA wind farm, said she'd strongly support a NYPA wind farm. But she worried that a second Atlantic cable, which would buy cheaper imported energy from largely coal and nuclear energy plants in the Mid-Atlantic, "doesn't solve the problem. It's going to bring more fossil-fuel-based energy into the region, when really we should be looking at renewables."

Kessel said the wind farm would be part of a larger plan that envisions NYPA substantially rebuilding and enhancing the state's energy infrastructure, part of his mandate to revitalize the upstate economy.

LIPA spokesman Ed Dumas said, "LIPA is interested in working with NYPA on any project that makes sense for Long Island."