Consolidated Edison (NYSE:ED) said Wednesday it has energized the first piece of its Reliable Clean City initiative.
The six-mile, 300-MW power line links the 345-kV Rainey substation with a 138-kV Astoria substation.
Con Ed is building two other power lines in Brooklyn and Staten Island as part of the initiative begun in 2021. Altogether, the three lines have a combined rating of 900 MW, and, with associated substation upgrades, a price tag of approximately $800 million.
When completed in 2025, the three lines will allow for retirement of eight gas-fired peaker units at five other sites across the city by facilitating importation of power generated elsewhere.
With its large nuclear and hydro facilities and a growing number of solar and wind farms, the upstate New York grid is mostly emissions-free. Downstate is densely populated and powered mostly by fossil fuels.
Multiple transmission projects are now in planning or construction stages to bring clean energy to the nation’s largest city from upstate and elsewhere, and to retire the fossil fuel plants blamed for respiratory illnesses in surrounding neighborhoods.
On a similar note, the 558-MW peaker formerly operated by Astoria Gas Turbine Power closed Monday.
The aging plant was denied a state permit to modernize in 2021 because it would not comply with new, stiffer state regulations.
In 2022, the NRG (NYSE:NRG) subsidiary that owned it announced a deal to sell the site to the Equinor-BP entity developing the proposed Beacon Wind project off the New York coast.
The plant will be demolished, and its proposed replacement is the Astoria Gateway for Renewable Energy (AGRE), a 1,230-MW converter station for power generated by Beacon Wind.
In nearby Long Island City, Rise Light & Power is proposing to convert Ravenswood Generating Station, the city’s largest power plant, into a 1,310-MW offshore wind hub. Ravenswood, a longtime target of health and environmental justice activists, has already been partially retired and three more of its generating units totaling 68.6 MW will be retired as Con Ed completes the Reliable Clean City projects.
In a state news release Wednesday, New York Public Service Commission Chair Rory M. Christian tied together the impact of Reliable Clean City and similar projects in the pipeline.
“New York State is in the middle of a fundamental change in the generation and delivery of electricity,” Christian said. “Our priority is ensuring renewable, clean sources are integrated into the grid while polluting sources are being phased out. Given this fact, it is expected that additions and modifications to the utilities’ transmission infrastructure will accommodate the cleaner sources of electricity while ensuring reliability. These are much needed, welcomed changes that will improve all of our lives for the better.”
The Astoria-Long Island City corridor is called “Asthma Alley” in some circles. The construction of the city’s largest power plant a stone’s throw from two of its largest public housing complexes is an example of the environmental injustice that is a parallel target of New York’s clean energy transition efforts.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. alluded to this in a Con Ed news release:
“Queens is done with the days of disinvestment in our health — both the health of our families and the health of our environment. There is no mission more critical than our transformation into a borough run on renewable energy, and Con Edison’s Reliable Clean City Project represents a significant step toward that goal. I look forward to working with Con Edison and all of our partners to ensure that Queens becomes a global leader in the fight against climate change and environmental injustice.”
