The Con Ed plant on the Lower East Side (PetroleumJelliffe/flickr)

July 11, 2006 —New Yorkers are expected to set a new peak for electricity usage this summer. The New York Independent System Operator, which runs the state’s electric markets, says demand is up …largely because there’s been more economic development in the city and in Long Island. But it also says there’s no fear of a blackout because the region has enough power – at least for now. As WNYC’s Beth Fertig reports, the question is how long New York City can wait to build new power plants.

REPORTER: It takes power to make power. So as New York City tries to meet the heightened demand for energy, the goal is to shift to a cleaner generation of power plants that can produce more electricity with less energy and less pollution.

YAGER: If we look to our right here, this is the boiler over here.

REPORTER: Ken Yager is Keyspan’s Manager of Regulatory Affairs for the Ravenswood Power plant in Queens.

YAGER: Stay back a little bit

REPORTER: We’re inside one of the plant’s older units built in the 1960s. It’s easily the size of two football fields and the white-covered turbines look like the tops of gigantic wheels. Its boiler is fueled by either natural gas or oil in order to make steam.

YAGER: The steam that we’re going to produce right here in this boiler is going to be piped into those turbines, they’re going to turn the turbines at a rate of about 3600 RPM which is going to turn the generator.

REPORTER: But that steam still takes a lot of energy to produce. Just making one kilowatt hour of electricity takes 10 thousand units of fuel, known as BTUs. Two years ago, Keyspan opened a new state-of-the art plant next door to its older units here along the East River. It’s smaller. But it’s much more efficient.

Yager points to a gas-powered jet engine connected to a turbine. The waste heat from this engine is actually powering a second turbine.

YAGER: That large structure at the end there? That’s the exhaust gases being directed into a boiler. We’re taking the exhaust heat, boiling water and making steam basically for free, and that steam is being piped over to this generator this turbine generator, and we’re turning another one. So we’ve got two turbine generators in here, one basically operating off of waste heat from the first one.

REPORTER: This combined cycle technology is about 30 percent more efficient than the one next door. It’s also cleaner because it produces fewer emissions.

New York City says its new technologies like these have helped the region meet its energy needs. A couple of years ago there were dire warnings that the city would need to build the equivalent of a Hoover Dam by 2008 to meet growing demand. But a mayoral task force now says the city can wait until 2012. Its report is based on estimates from Con Edison, which buys and distributes power - now that it’s almost completely out of the generating business. Gil Quinones is Senior Vice President of the city’s Economic Development Corporation, and chair of the mayor’s energy task force.

QUINONES: Our goal is over the next 3-5 years that we will reduce and manage our electricity demand by up to 675 megawatts or equivalent to a large power plant.

REPORTER: He says the city will get more power from three new natural gas plants have come on line in the last year while also importing power from upstate. And the city has been working to lower demand through various programs.

QUINONES: High performance building design or green buildings, through what’s called peak load management programs or demand response programs, and through small scale clean on site generation programs.

REPORTER: But one business and labor group thinks the city doesn’t have enough sense of urgency. Jerry Kremer chairs New York AREA, which stands for Affordable Reliable Electricity Alliance. He agrees there’s no immediate threat of a blackout. But he says new developments are pushing the envelope.

KREMER: When you have a new Yankee Stadium and new Shea Stadium in 2009 and you have the downtown Brooklyn facility, all of sudden with all these facilities coming on line there’s going to be this hungry demand for power that’s just not going to be there.

REPORTER: Kremer says the city needs to aggressively plan for new power plants now because they can take 5 years to build. Meanwhile, there’s no state legislation to expedite the approval of new plants because the law expired in 2002. There’s also a financial risk. Despite growing demand, operators say it’s difficult to attract investors. Electricity may be needed on a hot summer day. But there’s excess capacity the rest of time, making it hard to get a good return on one’s investment.

The Astoria Generation Station is facing this exact dilemma. It already has approval to replace its old boilers with new combined-cycle gas turbines like those at Ravenswood. These would increase output while also being more efficient. But the 1 point 5 billion dollar cost is unaffordable says Liam Baker, who manages Regulatory Affairs for the plant’s owner, US Power Generating Company.

BAKER: I can’t pass on my cost to customers without any guaranteed rate of return unless I have a contract. And the days of drunken sailors handing out money to build power plants are over.

REPORTER: State regulators can order Con Edison to sign a contract if additional supply is sorely needed. That happened a few years ago with another Astoria plant. But a Con Ed spokesman says the company is reluctant to enter into longterm contracts because it needs to stay flexible to get the best rates for its customers. The company also disputes the notion that New York’s market is too risky to attract investors, given its growth. But Environmentalists don’t buy that argument.

KENNEDY: There are plenty of opportunities to repower power plants in the city.

REPORTER: Kit Kennedy, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council says more power plants would upgrade to cleaner and more efficient technology if they were given contracts. She says those who focus solely on building their way out of this dilemma are shortsighted.

KENNEDY: I think it’s somewhat of a scare tactic almost and it’s very myopic. It’s saying the only way we can solve our energy problems is to build and to build immediately instead of looking at building power plants as one of a host of options. Energy efficiency works just as well as a power plant in terms of meeting demand and it lowers people’s bills and it’s zero pollution of any type.

REPORTER: She says the city has taken a balanced approach to its power needs because it focuses on both construction and conservation. And with more time to plan, she says, the city can work with developers and wary communities to prepare for the day when additional power plants will be unavoidable. But longterm policy decisions about financing and contracts will be harder to solve. And with Governor Pataki on the way out, lawmakers aren’t likely to act until after the election. For WNYC I’m Beth Fertig.