Judge rejects as 'moot' Quanta Services' request for restraining order on PSEG contract

An acting state Supreme Court judge on Monday rejected as "moot" a request by Quanta Services for a temporary order blocking LIPA’s awarding a service-contract extension to PSEG Long Island.

The decision by acting state Supreme Court Justice Philippe Solages is the latest chapter in LIPA’s controversial bid process begun in May 2024 to award the lucrative contract to operate the electrical grid to an outside provider. Quanta has sued LIPA in state court, challenging LIPA’s decision as "unlawful," amid state and internal LIPA investigations into LIPA’s conduct of the procurement.

Quanta and LIPA didn’t immediately provide statements in response to Solage’s ruling, which tosses the request for a temporary order to block the award to PSEG, not Quanta’s broader Article 78 filing, which questioned the legitimacy of the bidding process.

Last month, Billy Raley, a top LIPA official who was on the review committee to award the contract, told Newsday he was asked by a state-appointed LIPA official on five separate occasions to lower Quanta’s score during the bidding — pressure he said he and another senior LIPA official resisted. Raley said he was ultimately fired last month because he refused to sign off on easier performance targets for PSEG. Despite Quanta’s higher score on the bidding, six LIPA trustees voted against awarding Quanta the contract, while one, David Manning, voted in favor.

Solages, who previously worked as counsel for the Nassau Board of Elections, wrote in his decision that "Since LIPA has already voted to extend the agreement and ‘an injunction may not issue to prohibit a fait accompli,’" Quanta’s request is "denied as moot." LIPA’s board voted 7-0 with on Sept. 25 to approve the PSEG Long Island contract extension for five years on Sept. 25. Quanta filed its Article 78 lawsuit on Sept. 18.

Further, Solages wrote that Quanta "fails to demonstrate its entitlement to the relief sought," noting that the company had not "established the likelihood of succeeding in its claim that the petition is timely." LIPA had argued that the requested injunction and lawsuit were filed outside the four-month statute of limitations for such a case, saying that the clock started when LIPA’s board initially rejected Quanta’s bid on April 30.

Quanta had argued that the four-month statute actually started May 22, when the LIPA board voted to cancel the entire bidding process altogether, noting that LIPA’s general counsel Bobbi O’Connor, in an email, told Quanta the procurement was still active.

But Solages wrote that Quanta made "no claim that it did not receive timely notice of the board’s decision on April 30," and that " ... Since LIPA reached a definitive position on [Quanta’s] proposal on April 30, 2025, [Quanta’s] involvement in the process ceased on that day, and any proceeding challenging that decision should have been commenced by the end of August, 2025."

Solages also ruled that Quanta has not established "irreparable injury" from the lack of an injunction blocking the award, and that the "balance of equities weigh against" Quanta, "in view of the impending expiration" of the PSEG contract on Dec. 31 and the "possibility that any disruption of that agreement could affect the electrical services provided to LIPA’s customers." LIPA’s outside counsel Brendan McGuire had made just such a ‘balance of equities’ argument in court last week.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

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