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A pipeline into LIPA's thinking

Joye Brown

June 17, 2008

Kevin Law, head of the Long Island Power Authority, made his first visit to Shoreham long before last Friday, when he went with a LIPA advisory committee charged with determining the future of the mothballed nuclear power plant.

He went a few months ago with a camera crew from the BBC, which had traveled to Suffolk's North Shore for a documentary on America's failed energy policy.

As head of LIPA, Law has been working on Long Island's energy policy. Shoreham could claim a part of that future, perhaps as the first local stop for gas piped under Long Island Sound from Connecticut.

We talked about that yesterday, even as LIPA was prepping for something more urgent - the possibility of heavy evening storms.

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What were you thinking when you walked through the power plant the first time?

I looked around and thought, what a waste. Six billion dollars. With $6 billion, every power line could have been put underground. ... It's the ghost of Shoreham that looms. Although that was LILCO, not LIPA, which took over, it's the Shoreham nuclear power plant and Hurricane Gloria that people remember. Some of that bad blood has gone to LIPA and I think we've inherited it unfairly.

Over the years, though, LIPA's been slammed for being more about politics than electric power.

Maybe that was the case. I have really tried to reform the way LIPA operates ... I've gotten rid of a lot of things, like the charitable giving, because we are public, not private, and we have to operate differently. That's why we need transparency and accountability, and it's why I've created advisory groups to see what we do with Shoreham, repowering old plants and getting customers to use more efficient appliances.

Where's the cushion coming from?

The Cross Sound Cable, the Neptune Cable and some of the smaller plants and the Caithness plant that is under construction. The cables have been critical to introducing us to more power and allowing us to be connected to three different electric grid systems in the Northeast.

And now Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy's pushing the Islander East cable.

Steve should be commended for trying to bring New York and Connecticut together to figure out a route that is acceptable for the project ... because we need more gas in the region and that cable would bring gas into Shoreham and to the East End.

You've been unusually frank in saying rates are going up.

I don't control the cost of fuel and that's what drives our rates and so I am just telling it like it is ... I am doing everything I can to hold down rates, but since I took over in October, the price of a barrel of oil was $79 and it was $137, I think, on Friday. And when LIPA took over LILCO, 10 years ago, it was $14.

With costs skyrocketing, is Long Island cutting back?

No, demand is going up 2 percent a year, and 7 percent on the East End.

What about conservation? Alternative energy?

Everybody says why don't you use more solar and wind ... and we have announced projects on renewables, solar, alternative energy ... but those are still intermittent sources of power. We've announced a billion-dollar program that will offer incentive money to assist our customers in buying more efficient appliances. Conservation and efficiency go hand in hand but are not the same things. You can turn off lights and save money, but you can also get better appliances, better lighting. I can't control rates, but what we can do is help customers control their bills by using more efficient appliances. Everybody wants to do something smarter with their homes and businesses.

Next week, Kevin Law plans on seeking board approval for a pilot project that would put smart meters in homes in Bethpage and Hauppauge. The meters will tell customers, in real time, how much they're paying for electricity - which will be more if they're running a washing machine at noon on a hot day.

The shock might force us to become smarter than the meter.