Cross-Sound power cable out of order since summer

The Cross-Sound Cable, a 24-mile undersea power line from Long Island to Connecticut, has been out of commission since July, utility and cable officials acknowledged Tuesday.

The cable, which was first put into operation in 2003 after a major regional blackout, could be back in service by Friday, according to an official of the Cross-Sound Cable Company. The cable runs from Shoreham near the site of the mothballed nuclear power plant, to New Haven, Connecticut.

Equipment problems on the Connecticut side of the cable were said to be the problem.

PSEG Long Island, which operates the Long Island electric grid under a contract to LIPA, declined to answer questions about the outage. "You'd have to talk to the [Cross-Sound Cable] as it is their cable," PSEG spokeswoman Ashley Chauvin said.

A person who answered Cross-Sound Cable Co.’s phone confirmed the line has been out of service since July due to "equipment failure." He said repairs were "finishing up this week" and the "latest plan is to try to energize again on Friday."

The New York Independent System Operator, which oversees state energy markets, confirmed the line has been out, due to an "external force," with published data showing the line has had zero output since Nov. 8.

LIPA in a statement confirmed the cable has had "intermittent service since the summer."

But LIPA said that because of the line’s relatively small size and relatively higher winter prices from the New England power market to which it connects, the Cross-Sound Cable outage "does not have a significant impact on power pricing or usage of on-Island plants."

LIPA has access to around 5,800 megawatts of power. Long Island’s winter load use today is expected to reach 2,684 megawatts at the peak around 4 p.m.

It’s not the first time an undersea cable has been down. In October 2014, a fire on the Connecticut side of the cable took it off line for more than a month. LIPA has a 20-year contract to purchase power over the line, valued at $330 million.

In January 2014, a 23-mile cable owned by the New York Power Authority also failed after an anchor strike. It was repaired later that year. In March 2012, transformers connected to the 660-megawatt Neptune Cable under the Atlantic Ocean malfunctioned, sharply reducing the South Shore cable's capacity for more than a year. In 2009, one of three cables between Northport and Norwalk, Connecticut, also failed, requiring shutdown until 2011, Newsday has reported.

Meanwhile, PSEG last week said it finished work on a 7.3-mile underground transmission line, operating at 138,000 volts from Uniondale to Lynbrook. The work increased electric reliability in the region while providing greater power bandwidth to accept power from renewables such as wind power that are expected on the local grid by 2024, PSEG said, adding the project came in on time and "significantly" under its $176 million budget.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

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