Board denies Shore town’s request to re-route offshore wind project’s cables
NJ.com| Bill Duhart |June 2, 2023
The state Board of Public Utilities has denied a request for a stay from Ocean City for a ruling allowing Ocean Wind LLC to access its preferred transmission route to bring high voltage power cables ashore from New Jersey’s first offshore wind project. The ruling was delivered on May 24 but became active Wednesday. “The Board finds that Ocean City has not met its burden of proving, by clear and convincing evidence, that injunctive relief is necessary to prevent irreparable harm,” the ruling said.
The state Board of Public Utilities has denied a request for a stay from Ocean City for a ruling allowing Ocean Wind LLC to access its preferred transmission route to bring high voltage power cables ashore from New Jersey’s first offshore wind project. The ruling was delivered on May 24 but became active Wednesday. “The Board finds that Ocean City has not met its burden of proving, by clear and convincing evidence, that injunctive relief is necessary to prevent irreparable harm,” the ruling said.
The state Board of Public Utilities has denied a request for a stay from Ocean City for a ruling allowing Ocean Wind LLC to access its preferred transmission route to bring high voltage power cables ashore from New Jersey’s first offshore wind project.
The ruling was delivered on May 24 but became active Wednesday.
“The Board finds that Ocean City has not met its burden of proving, by clear and convincing evidence, that injunctive relief is necessary to prevent irreparable harm,” the ruling said.
Ocean City did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday and Thursday.
City officials previously said they oppose a 2021 state law that gives wind energy projects approved by the BPU the authority to locate, build, use and maintain wires …
... more [truncated due to possible copyright]The state Board of Public Utilities has denied a request for a stay from Ocean City for a ruling allowing Ocean Wind LLC to access its preferred transmission route to bring high voltage power cables ashore from New Jersey’s first offshore wind project.
The ruling was delivered on May 24 but became active Wednesday.
“The Board finds that Ocean City has not met its burden of proving, by clear and convincing evidence, that injunctive relief is necessary to prevent irreparable harm,” the ruling said.
Ocean City did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday and Thursday.
City officials previously said they oppose a 2021 state law that gives wind energy projects approved by the BPU the authority to locate, build, use and maintain wires and associated land-based infrastructure as long as they run underground on public property including streets.
Ocean Wind 1 is the first of five wind farms proposed for the state. New Jersey will lead the nation in offshore wind development when it is scheduled to be operational in 2024 or early 2025. The project — a landmark for the Danish wind giant Ørsted — includes the construction of 98, 900-foot long wind turbines and monopiles 15 miles off the coast.
The cables will come ashore at the 35th Street beach – a pristine setting with a view that looks like an infinite horizon into the Atlantic Ocean. It will then travel seven miles to the shuttered B.L. England Generating Station in Upper Township, which once burned coal for energy.
The city appealed the plan to bring the lines ashore 50 feet under the ocean bed and beach, and then snake under streets to the power plant. The company said the work will not be done during the summer tourist season and the streets will be resurfaced at its cost.
“Ocean Wind 1 remains committed to collaboration with local communities and will continue working to support New Jersey’s clean energy targets and economic development goals by bringing good-paying jobs and local investment to the Garden State,” Maddy Urbish, head of government affairs and market strategy for NJ, Ørsted said in a statement.
Ørsted is seeking easements on three parcels of land owned by the city totaling just under an acre in size. All of the lots will remain undisturbed on the surface, the company stated in public filings. There will be construction and excavation along 35th Street to Roosevelt Boulevard in the public right of way.
The BPU decision removes challenges the city had raised to issue permits for road work needed for the preferred transmission route over several parcels under municipal control that are not in the right of way.
The Ocean Wind LLC project is the first of five wind farms proposed for the state in an effort to get up to half of New Jersey’s energy production from non-fossil fuels by 2035 and all of it by 2050.