By Howard Goldstein
The proposal by Maine-based Neptune Transmission Systems LLC to build the converter at Cedar Creek Park met stiff opposition from numerous civic leaders from Wantagh, Seaford, Bellmore and Merrick in recent months.
And so, the elected leaders who would have to OK the Cedar Creek converter, in particular Nassau County Legislator David Denenberg (D-Merrick) and County Executive Thomas Suozzi (D-Glen Cove), have refused to lend their support to the plan.
Experts say an undersea electric cable of any kind could light anywhere from 300,000 to 600,000 homes, so more than one major energy company, which would construct, own and operate the cable, is competing to build it.
In addition to Neptune, Montreal-based TransEnergy is negotiating with LIPA to link an undersea cable to the Island from the Atlantic Ocean. The cable would run up the Wantagh Parkway, passing along the Bellmore-Wantagh border, before connecting to LIPA's Levittown substation. From there, electricity from the cable would be converted from direct current to alternating current and enter the Island's power grid.
TransEnergy has an established history with LIPA, having already built converter stations on the North Shore several years ago for the Cross Sound Cable project, which would have linked the Island with Connecticut power plants via an undersea cable.
Connecticut lawmakers, however, scuttled the project last year. They charged that Long Island would receive the project's benefit -- less expensive electricity -- with no pollution.
Like Neptune's proposal for the South Shore, the TransEnergy cable would connect Long Island to the Northeast Power Grid via New Jersey.
LIPA Chairman Richard Kessel, of Merrick, said the power authority has not yet selected a developer to potentially construct a South Shore cable. "We're talking to both TransEnergy and Neptune," he said. "[The cable] is still very much in the planning stages."
TransEnergy could not be reached for comment.
Neptune's Paul Rich said that Cedar Creek Park remains the best location for the converter. In earlier interviews, he had said that converting electricity at the Levittown substation or any number of other sites would be cost prohibitive. Now, though, he said Neptune is actively pursuing other locations for the converter.
"We don't want to be a divisive element in the Wantagh-Seaford community," Rich said. "Although we have made excellent inroads in that community, I don't think we have the overwhelming and vocal support base we need. So we are looking at other sites and trying to work out the logistics and economics."
Neptune spokeswoman Pat Maher said LIPA's Levittown substation is rated at 330 megawatts, as opposed to Neptune's proposed 600-megawatt station at Cedar Creek. (One megawatt lights roughly 1,000 homes.)
According to Maher, LIPA had originally told Neptune representatives that building the converter at the Levittown substation could have caused power outages owing to the cable's high electric output.
"If Neptune does get the Levittown site," Maher said, "then the cable may be built along Wantagh Parkway. Of course, we will want to talk to the community. There is nothing before the [Nassau County] Legislature yet, and nothing is permanent between Neptune, LIPA or TransEnergy."
Denenberg, who had sponsored a town meeting in Seaford when Neptune first proposed the Cedar Creek converter last fall, maintains that the concept of the undersea cable is good. It would provide electricity to the Island without air pollution. He reiterated, however, that Cedar Creek Park is an unacceptable site for the converter.
Denenberg said, "This plan for cable energy from any company that can provide it, be it Neptune or TransEnergy, or someone else, needs to happen, but only under acceptable circumstances to the residents involved."
