Demands for KeySpan cleanup

LI plants viewed as health hazard by group that wants sale of the utility tied to replacing old equipment

BY MARK HARRINGTON
Newsday Staff Writer

March 9, 2007

KeySpan Corp.'s fleet of aging power plants was drawn anew into the contentious debate over the company's pending merger with National Grid, as environmental groups yesterday called for guarantees that the dirtiest be modernized before the deal wins state approval.

KeySpan's dozen power plant sites on Long Island already have been a source of controversy among critics who worry about ownership of the plants by a foreign entity. London-based National Grid and the Long Island Power Authority are said to be negotiating an agreement that would give LIPA some leverage should National Grid decide to divest plants.

Worries about National Grid's commitment to cleaning up the oldest plants have simmered since the deal was announced last year. But they have boiled over following the release last month of a harshly critical report from the staff of the state Public Service Commission questioning the deal.

KeySpan remains confident the proposed deal will be completed, even as a new contingent of lawmakers, including state Sen. Kenneth LaValle (R-Port Jefferson), gave a thumbs down.

Yesterday morning, a newly formed group calling itself The Coalition To Repower Long Island set up in front of KeySpan's Hicksville office to demand commitments in advance of approval of the $11.8 billion deal. Babylon Town Supervisor Steve Bellone, a leader of the coalition, noted that despite years of discussion about upgrading the plants, "not a single megawatt has been repowered on Long Island."

Repowering involves augmenting or fully replacing the oldest plants, including KeySpan's largest in Northport and Port Jefferson, with combined-cycle plants that burn cleaner and more efficiently. In some cases, new equipment can be linked to the old, though in others, entirely new facilities will replace the outdated plants. Price tags are in the billions.

Bellone said the coalition's mission is to "make sure repowering is at the top of the agenda" as National Grid and KeySpan take their case for the merger to the Public Service Commission.

Lisa Tyson, director of the Long Island Progressive Coalition, said the group plans a grass-roots outreach to Long Islanders to win support. Mark Serotoff, coordinator of the Sustainable Energy Alliance of Long Island, pointed to a laundry list of carcinogens and toxins belching from the plants, particularly the oldest and most outdated in Northport and Port Jefferson, in saying repowerings are needed at almost any cost.

But Bob Teetz, director of environmental engineering and compliance for KeySpan, questioned some of the claims about the need for full-scale repowering given the expense of the projects and measures the company has already taken to reduce emissions.

KeySpan lately has been giving presentations noting that the Long Island Power Authority, which ultimately must bless any project because it will purchase the power, has devoted significant resources to non-KeySpan plants, including piping in power from underwater cables and a new modern plant in Yaphank.

Opponents of the Yaphank project, and a wind-farm proposal off Jones Beach, say LIPA should have focused on upgrading existing plants years ago. LIPA has been working to diversify the regional portfolio of energy sources.

But Matthew Cordaro, a veteran utility executive and dean of Long Island University's College of Management, said, "Repowering is something that should have been considered before all these other alternatives."

Teetz said new power sources mean Long Island will rely less on the aging KeySpan plants in coming years, so that the most costly and sophisticated modernizations might not be the most economically feasible. Adding new equipment to work with just one of the four turbines at Northport will cost $1.3 billion, Teetz said.

Serotoff disputed KeySpan's claims about reduced emissions at the plants, noting a study that lists the Northport plant as the second worst for emissions in the Northeast.

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