LIPA Opts for Yaphank Plant Over Shoreham Site

A proposal to site a 377mW power plant on the property of the Shoreham Power Plant will no longer be considered by the Long Island Power Authority, as staff recently chose to move forward with a 700mW proposal in Yaphank instead.

In a letter to the Board of Trustees late last month, CEO John McMahon stated that negotiations between JPower – the Illinois-based company which proposed the Tesla Generating Station – and LIPA have since ceased so talks can move forward in working out a power purchasing agreement and getting the larger facility up and running by 2018.

"We're looking forward now to other implications of the decision," said Steve Thome, vice president of development for JPower, which operates four facilities on Long Island, including an 80mW facility currently at Shoreham.

A proposal for the Tesla Generating Station involved a $500 million build-up, erecting a new station on part of the 57-acre parcel owned by LIPA which hosts the Shoreham Power Plant, left largely unused today.

J-Power's proposal as well as the Yaphank site – proposed by Caithness, which currently operates an existing facility – were the final two projects being reviewed by LIPA after starting off with 45.

A seven-page letter from McMahon to the trustees dated July 25 notes that Caithness' 706mW capacity would provide "added flexibility in assessing and addressing future system needs." However, according to a Newsday article, cost to build the plant could be double the JPower price tag, resulting in a 2.5 percent to 3 percent increase in energy bills.

The decision means a loss in potential future funding in the Shoreham-Wading River School District. At an open house at the North Shore Library last December, officials were tentative to put an exact number on how much would come into the district as a result of the power plant. However, Caithness' existing 350mW facility in Yaphank contributes about $9 million annually in Payments in Lieu of Taxes, about two-thirds of which go to schools. So, for a ballpark number, slightly more likely could have been expected to come as a result of JPower's proposal.

"We know the community out there was very responsive to the ideas of re-using the site, which is largely left unused ... Anything we could do to improve facilities and increase the tax base in the school district would be welcoming," Thome said. "We would still like to see that in the future."