LIPA rethinking future power, from zinc-based batteries to newer gas-fired plants

As the Long Island Power Authority embarks on a new study to determine how it will power the region for the next generation, it is showing a new willingness to break from prior assumptions about battery storage technology, the cost-effectiveness of long-term contracts for undersea cables and the notion that gas-fired power plants are destined for the scrap heap.

Among the ideas the utility said it will examine as it looks for ways to power the grid with affordable, reliable clean energy are examining zinc-based battery storage plants that are nonflammable; reconsidering inking costly long-term contracts for two Long Island undersea cables; and upgrading or replacing the dozens of small gas-fired plants across Long Island that keep the lights on during peak demand days.

For LIPA/PSEG customers, the analysis could mean behind-the-scenes changes in the way the utility powers the grid and, potentially, a more certain path to meeting the region's peak load, amid increasing uncertainty from Washington about renewable energy.

The analysis also could impact future utility bills if, for instance, LIPA decides it's best to build a new large power plant here, costing billions of dollars, or even to install a dozen or more new smaller gas plants. The billions in costs could be offset by delay or cancellation of offshore wind plants, but the idea also likely would generate some environmental opposition.

Public meetings about the updated Integrated Resource Plan are scheduled for Wednesday in Nassau and Suffolk counties. More information about the plan and the meetings can be found at liresourceplan.com.

Gary Stephenson, senior vice president of power supply for LIPA, said the utility will no longer rely on the notion that some future technology will swoop in and rescue the grid from the challenges of reliably keeping the lights on.

"One of the changes in this go-round is we’re going to be a lot more realistic and programmatic about what we assume," he said. "It’s got to be commercially available technology. We’re not going to assume some sort of breakthrough."

The prior study had assumptions based around emission-free resources, some of which had not yet been developed. This time LIPA will consider only existing technology for its near-term powering plans, Stephenson said.

For battery storage systems, for which the state has mandated upward of 6,000 megawatts, LIPA will give consideration to a technology known as zinc bromine, which is nonflammable, potentially addressing the concerns that have dogged lithium-ion battery storage systems across the country.

"We’re looking at zinc bromine technology," Stephenson said. "It’s nonflammable, but it has a lot of the characteristics of lithium," including the ability to store and supply power for six to eight hours. It’s not quite as efficient as lithium, he said, but the tradeoff could help address concerns that have led to battery plant moratoriums across much of Long Island.

A fire at an East Hampton battery plant in 2023 led to a state probe of other fires that year and new fire code safety standards. Earlier this month, the Suffolk County Water Authority filed a lawsuit saying the fire suppression effort at the East Hampton plant allowed 2.2 million of toxin-laced water into the aquifer, forcing it to shut down two wells and limit water from two others. The state is investigating.

Lithium-ion battery developers and their advocates say new systems are safer, but even those who backed them are showing signs of concern. Last week, Brookhaven Town Supervisor Dan Panico, at a town board hearing, said, "Hopefully people will seriously start to consider zinc as an alternative to lithium-ion." 

Stephenson indicated LIPA is exploring it.

"If the main problem is getting over the concerns around thermal runaway battery fires, that may be an interesting thing to look at," he said. "That may very well be worth the tradeoffs." He noted a public power company in Springfield, Missouri, is already doing it and "the community loves it. They [adopted] it because of the fire risk."

Michael Kaufman, vice chairman of the Suffolk County Planning Commission, said towns that have continued to enact moratoriums on lithium-ion batteries may welcome a nonflammable approach. "People are starting to understand that lithium may have some problems," he said. 

The commission recently convened a meeting with towns with the idea of unifying a Suffolk-wide approach to battery sites.

The prior LIPA power plan study assumed widely available wind power would be the chief source of based-load — the minimum continuous level — power for the region. Now, Stephenson said, the study will assume that only Sunrise Wind, for Long Island, and Empire Wind, for New York City, will get built in the next two years, after opposition from the Trump administration stalled or torpedoed other wind energy plans.

That means LIPA will look at the large network of natural-gas fueled plants that currently provide the bulk of the region’s power. With more gas expected to come to the region from a Williams Cos. project called the Northeast Supply Enhancement line, LIPA can consider replacing existing plants with newer, more efficient and more reliable fossil fuel-burning plants. Most local plants are owned by National Grid, whose contract expires in 2028. 

LIPA will look "generically" at the idea of replacing the biggest, oldest plants in Northport, Port Jefferson and Island Park with a new, more efficient type of plant known as combined cycle technology, Stephenson said. But, he said, if that proposition proves too expensive, LIPA could consider less costly alternatives, called peakers.

"It gets to this question: why would you build a combined cycle plant which is much more expensive than, say, a peaker, when the problem you’re trying to solve at least from a reliability perspective is that you have enough capacity?" Stephenson said. "It may be that the least expensive, most no-regrets pathway is to build a less expensive peaker."

The new peaker plants would be way more reliable and cleaner than existing peaker plants, he said, and wouldn’t need a lot of new approvals because they are on land that already houses such plants.

Even as LIPA's approach considers an "all-of-the-above" strategy for energy in line with Gov. Kathy Hochul's approach, some say LIPA should continue to emphasize renewables in the future and not give into gas-based power just because the Trump administration has shifted the national course. 

LIPA "should be pursuing renewables to whatever degree possible," said Mark Fischl, a former LIPA vice chairman, who said solar and wind energy should be given priority over new gas plants. "Why are we changing our minds on this? ... Are we pretending climate change isn't happening because the Trump administration says it's not? Climate change is here, it's no hypothetical. I've seen it in firsthand." 

Much will rely on whether the state, aware of reliability problems with older plants, allows LIPA to count the power output of the biggest plants on Long Island toward its required power capacity. National Grid has kept the big plants well-maintained, so much so that the Northport plant saw its busiest power day ever last June.

A bigger focus on power capacity on Long Island also could lead to changes in how LIPA thinks about power coming here from two of its primary undersea cables: the Neptune line on the South Shore and the Cross-Sound cable on the North Shore.

Stephenson noted that both those cables are connected to other regional power grids where power capacity is getting scarce and more expensive. So as contracts expire, LIPA will examine whether it’s best to renew the old contracts, if available, or simply operate the cables by purchasing energy when it's economical on an as-needed basis. The concept could potentially save LIPA hundreds of millions of dollars, as long as it can show it still has enough power capacity on Long Island to meet the demand of the highest-use days.

LIPA currently has a capacity contract — essentially a long-term lease — with the Marcus Hook power plant in New Jersey that’s valued at nearly $1 billion. It expires in 2030 and LIPA is deciding now whether it will seek a new one.

"Continuing to rely on external regions outside New York for capacity is, I don’t think, a winning strategy for us," Stephenson said. "I think we need to take matters into our own hands on Long Island and, within the New York team, solve some of these long-term problems for good, without having to rely on other regions."

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

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