Ed Stern, president of Neptune Regional Transmission System (RTS), LLC, developer of the Neptune undersea electric transmission project between New Jersey and Long Island, and Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) Chairman Richard Kessel met in New Cassel last month with elected officials from North Hempstead and Nassau County.

Stern discussed the status of a project in which a 660-megawatt, 65-mile electric underwater and underground direct-current line will be installed from New Jersey to New Cassel. He also reviewed the work being performed at 508 Duffy Avenue - the site of a new converter station needed to handle the power coming in from the cable. With one megawatt enough to support 1,000 average-size homes, the project will enable LIPA to provide power from New Jersey and the mid-Atlantic and southeastern states to 660,000 homes annually through the Neptune system by the end of 2007.

According to Stern, Neptune will pour foundation for the Duffy Avenue converter station in March or April with construction of the building and a substation yard taking place soon after. The first cables are scheduled to arrive from Italy in early July, said Stern, and will be laid in New Jersey and then, by the fall, on Long Island.

Currently, crews from the Island Park-based Hallen Construction Co. Inc. are digging the trenches needed to bury conduits along the Wantagh Parkway. "They are laying the conduit so when the cable comes, they will be able to pull it through in sections. "Over the course of the next nine months, all the conduits will be laid in," said Stern, adding that, in the water, the cable will be buried "four, five, six feet, depending on the location, under the sea bottom ... here on land, it will be three or four feet."

According to Stern, "Once this plant is built all you are going to see is a nice looking facility. All the cables, whether at land or sea, will be buried the entire way. Nothing will be exposed, anywhere. No one will ever know that it is there."

The Duffy Avenue converter station is being constructed for the purpose of converting direct current (DC) electricity transported through the cable into alternating current (AC) electricity for distribution to Long Island customers. A second converter station, which is being built in Sayreville, NJ, will transform AC power into DC power for transmission to Long Island.

The power cable is a transmission connection to the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland (PJM) system that will increase the capacity and energy available to Long Island in a more flexible and reliable manner than simply siting new generating facilities on Long Island. In addition, the cable will add capacity and make available more energy without adding local impacts associated with new power generation as well as make more energy available relatively quickly compared to the long process of siting and permitting new generation plants because the cable connects to existing resources.

"When we took over LILCO in 1998, Long Island was isolated from the rest of the grid. Now, between the cross sound cable (between Connecticut and Long Island) and this cable, we are now going to be part of the entire national grid," Kessel said. "This is kind of like an energy super highway where we can move electricity up and down the east coast with Long Island being the terminal. We are like two extension cord plugs - one on the north shore and now one on the south shore. That's why this is so important."

The project will provide LIPA with access to one of the richest and most diverse sources of low-cost electrical capacity and energy in the country. Neptune will give LIPA an off-island purchase point where it can purchase these products at prices that are heavily discounted compared with Long Island. The cable will also ease the ever-growing electricity demand on Long Island as well as help LIPA tap into a market that will allow for electricity to be imported at much more competitive prices.

"Long Island will be part of the national energy grid and for the first time, we will be able to import power from the south of us where it is a lot cheaper because they do not use as much oil and gas. When this facility is finished and up and running two summers from now, it will have a significant impact on our customers' bills," said Kessel. "We believe that the wholesale price of electricity that we can import through the Neptune cable will help further stabilize electric bills on Long Island because we will be able to import power that does not come entirely from oil and gas, which right now is at record highs. Instead, we will be able to tap into other resources. I do not think there is any energy project, anywhere, that has ever been more important. This will be an incredible benefit to the people of Long Island once it is operational in 2007."

The transmission line will extend from Sayreville, NJ at the Raritan River, just off exit 9 of the New Jersey Turnpike, and travel some 51 miles beneath the New York Harbor and the Atlantic Ocean at a target depth of approximately four feet below the seabed. After making landfall south of Jones Beach, some 1,000 feet offshore of Jones Island, the cable will run under the Wantagh State Parkway some 14 miles before heading north and interconnecting with a converter station to be built on Duffy Avenue. From there, the cable will head back under the Wantagh to its final destination - a substation on Newbridge Road in Levittown where it will interconnect with the LIPA system.

In return for being granted the go-ahead to construct the converter station on North Hempstead Town property, Neptune has agreed to provide North Hempstead with funding in the amount of some $10 million, which will be used to build a state-of-the-art community center in New Cassel. Neptune will pay the town $10 million over the course of 12 years, beginning in 2007. Through the IDA's PILOT program, the Westbury School District will receive additional funding over the course of Neptune's 20-year contract with LIPA.

Of Neptune's agreement to help construct the community center, Supervisor Jon Kaiman said, "From the Town of North Hempstead's prospective this is an important project on a number of levels. We are thankful that we were able to find and be a partner with a company that has made a commitment, not only to Long Island's future, but to the local community's future as well. That outlook and approach is critical to the people in the community who will be hosting this facility. We look forward to a very positive relationship."

Councilman Robert Troiano added, "This is a great example and model for how government, the private sector and the community can work together for the benefit of all. We are very happy to have New Cassel be a part of what is the most important project in Long Island's energy history in exchange for what is a very valuable community asset. This is a case in which we have all been able to work together so that, in exchange for hosting this project we get a multi-million dollar, multi-purpose center that will revitalize the entire community."

For more information about the underwater, underground direct-current line or the construction of the converter stations, visit lipower.org and neptunerts.com.