National Grid says summer power demand highlights need to replace aging plants

With summer heat once again pushing up energy demand to near records, National Grid on Wednesday said its aging fleet of power plants is getting another workout, highlighting the need to replace them.

Summer demand peaked over three days in early July to 5,495 megawatts, according to National Grid, which supplies the bulk of the Island’s generation through three large plants and dozens of smaller ones. (National Grid also operates two battery storage plants.) The largest power plants are all more than a half-century old, and National Grid has begun exploratory work to replace or overhaul them, Newsday has reported.

At the same time, Long Island Power Authority has begun a yearlong process to examine all of its power sources and make key decisions about which will supply power to the region into the next decade. One key change since LIPA last conducted such a review is that offshore wind-power arrays are unlikely to take the same prominent position in the portfolio as they had before the Trump administration began its campaign to halt their development. Now, says LIPA, an "all of the above" approach is more likely to supply future energy needs, a path taken by Gov. Kathy Hochul as she looks to ease climate-law mandates.

In an interview Wednesday, Will Hazelip, president of National Grid Ventures, said the company's fleet of plants across Long Island has "performed very well" through the recent peak-load events and said they "stand ready and are doing that again today" with more heat driving system peaks higher.

But he noted the risks that increase each year the aging plants remain in place under the strain of such high reliance.

"The risk increases each year as these assets age," he said. "Of course, we stand ready, able and willing to keep them operating, but we are at the same time speaking about repowering and the need for adding new assets to maintain reliability of the system."

LIPA, in a statement, noted it experienced "no issues meeting electricity demand across Long Island" during the recent periods of extreme heat.

The authority said it will be evaluating "the possibility of repowering" the old plants, "alongside many other options." 

National Grid’s $4.8 billion contract with LIPA for use of the fleet of power plants expires in April 2028. Long Island has a highly efficient plant, known as Caithness, in Yaphank. That facility has a $1.67 billion contract with LIPA for the 365-megawatt combined-cycle plant that expires in July 2029.

Some green-energy advocates say LIPA should exhaust all opportunities to fulfill the state's green-energy mandates before it turns to repowering or replacing the old plants, even with cleaner-burning new ones. 

Hazelip said National Grid can envision a scenario in which at least one new highly efficient power plant is constructed at each of the three large power stations on Long Island over the next six or so years — at Northport, Port Jefferson and Island Park.

The plants are at least 50 years old, and one unit at the E.F. Barrett station in Island Park just turned 70 this year. The Barrett unit saw a failure last year during the summer peak season and had to be taken offline. It’s back in operation but will be taken offline later this year for a longer-term fix.

Hazelip said that repair is needed even if Barrett gets repowered, as the power is needed to meet expected load over the next half-decade.

While specific decisions about the plants remain under review, Hazelip said the Barrett site at Island Park is "certainly a great site for" repowering and "probably the most advanced" given upgrades done there a decade ago. 

National Grid also can see a scenario in which Long Island exports some power off the Island, a scenario that could be helped by a planned high-voltage cable known as Propel NY Energy. "There's an opportunity to export power off-island," he said, noting Propel would be bidirectional. National Grid is part of New York Transco, one of the developers of Propel, which awaits state and federal permits. 

The $3.26 billion Propel project, backed by job-seeking unions and green-energy advocates, is opposed by North Shore residents, three school districts, businesses and U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi, who are concerned about its impact on traffic, health and business. 

National Grid's big steam-generating plants, including around 1,500 megawatts of generation at Northport and more than a dozen smaller peaker plants, provide LIPA with around 3,500 megawatts of power.

After years of decline, the Long Island grid has seen spikes in power demand over the past year, and Hazelip believes that trend line will continue as customers power up electric cars, businesses increase power use and rooftop solar installs begin to reduce after the federal government removed tax incentives.

"It is resulting in an increased usage of the existing power plants, and we do expect that to continue as a trend," he said.

Even in a world replete with renewables, National Grid expects that the existing power plant sites will continue to operate — a big change from a state mandate that foresaw large-scale retirements of fossil fuel plants just three years ago.

"We expect to see the sites operating today to continue to be sites where power generation is operating, but with new power generation units built on those sites so that we can retire those older units," Hazelip said.

It won’t happen all at once. He said the repowerings would likely come in stages. The four units that operate at Northport, with four attendant smokestacks for each, could be replaced over time — one unit at a time, he said.

"In five years, we wouldn’t expect to replace all the units at Northport," he said. "We might, say, replace one unit out of the four, keep the old unit on standby in case the new unit was out for maintenance. ... The main point is we need some new units at these sites."

Getting new plant equipment would be a challenge. Hazelip said the company needs to get started soon, to fight an onslaught of tech companies and others that are also vying for plant equipment for data centers. "It’s not a flip of a switch," he said. "We would have to compete to acquire this equipment."

National Grid’s model for the new plants foresees increased efficiency and reliability and lower emissions levels that would in the end represent savings for customers, even though the new plants would cost billions.

With new combined-cycle power plants, "you get a lot more bang for the buck," Hazelip said. They are 50% more efficient than existing plants, they would continue to be able to be fueled by natural gas or oil, they are built on sites that wouldn’t need significant new infrastructure to connect to the grid, and nitrous oxide emissions would be reduced 90%.

"There would be higher reliability," he said. "It’s hard to put a dollar value on that. Reliability is like insurance. We see each of those things outstripping the cost."

Hazelip said modeling the company has done shows efficient, new gas-fired plants will be needed even if the grid moves toward a resurgence in renewables in five or 10 years.

"It needs to be done regardless," he said of the upgraded plants. "We very much continue to support an all-of-the-above [energy grid]. It’s not either-or," but both plants and green energy "to ensure the energy system stays reliable and safe."

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

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