By:Scott Brinton
LIPA awaits Freeport response to offer that could close diesel plant; natural gas still possible
As of July 20, the Long Island Power Authority gave Freeport Village 7-10 days to accept a deal that would likely lead to closure of the municipality's diesel Power Plant No. 2.
As first reported in the Herald, LIPA started negotiating the pact in May. Terms of the deal have remained confidential. LIPA Chairman Richard Kessel, though, recently said that, hypothetically, an independent utility such as a KeySpan could rebuild the 1969 plant with modern, natural gas-fired turbines. An emergency generator could be installed on Sunrise Highway to provide Freeport with the electricity it needed while the plant was under construction. After the independent utility refurbished the plant, it would then provide electricity to Freeport and LIPA.
Kessel said LIPA developed a "very fair, equitable package" for Freeport that would protect residents' health and the environment. "The environmental damage they are experiencing will be eliminated. The ball now is in the hands of Freeport," said Kessel, who lives in Merrick.
On Monday, Freeport spokesperson Patricia Murphy said of the village's negotiations with LIPA: "That's still in discussions," adding that Mayor William Glacken was scheduled to meet with other energy providers later this week. She did not say why.
Diesel generators rank among the "dirtiest" energy sources. The California Air Resources Board recently declared diesel exhaust a known carcinogen, meaning it causes cancer. Numerous federal agencies label it a likely carcinogen.
Diesel exhaust is also known to produce ozone, leading to global warming, as well as causing acid rain.
Right now, the state Department of Environmental Conservation is rewriting Freeport's Title V permit to run Plant No. 2 to include stricter emissions limits for particulate matter (soot) and nitrogen of oxide. There are no such standards in the permit now, and the plant has no pollution controls. For more than six months recently, Merrick, Bellmore and Freeport civic associations fought to have the permit revised.
To date, Freeport officials "have been very receptive to discussions" with LIPA, Kessel said. He noted, however, that the village had not said yes or no to the deal as of last Friday.
"It's now time to make a decision," Kessel said. "We've made that very clear to the village."
Overwhelmingly, environmental and electric-industry experts spoken with for this article said natural gas is better for public health and the environment than diesel.
Gordian Raacke is executive director of the Citizens Advisory Panel, a court-appointed watchdog for the Long Island Power Authority. Natural gas, he said, "is definitely a step up. Diesel is much, much more polluting."
Jonathan Banks, deputy director for Clear the Air, a national environmental campaign based in Washington, D.C., said, "With diesel, you get a lot of toxics coming out, [which] will stick around for a long time."
And Eddie Bautista, director of community planning for New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, which has fought installation of natural-gas turbines in New York City, said he would prefer a gas-fired plant to a diesel. Of gas, he said, "It's got to be better."
The experts, however, noted that even gas-fired electric plants aren't entirely clean. Only renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, are.
This week, the Herald examines the pluses and minuses of natural-gas technology to give readers a sense of what they might expect if Plant No. 2 were rebuilt.
Vigilance needed
Bautista recommended that residents keep close watch over any deal that might emerge to retool Plant No. 2. They must fight for the cleanest possible gas plant, if such a deal is struck, he said.
And, Bautista warned, that battle could turn heated.
In the city, New York Lawyers fought beside the grass-roots civic group Communities United for Responsible Energy, to prevent the New York Power Authority from erecting 10 LM6000 gas-fired turbines in low-income, mostly minority neighborhoods.
The groups argued that the emergency turbines were unnecessary, as New York City had more than enough generators to meet its energy needs, Bautista said. They were also installed in neighborhoods where private energy suppliers were already building far larger power plants, he said.
The LM6000 is significant to Freeport-Merrick because it would be one of the gas-fired generators considered for installation at Plant No. 2, if Freeport agreed to have the plant rebuilt. LIPA Chairman Kessel said the generator is "certainly a possibility" at the plant.
The LM6000, he said, "is among the cleanest of its kind." He noted, though, that it is not the only generator that could run the potential new plant. He declined to offer other possibilities.
General Electric manufactures the LM6000. It costs about $50 million and is rated at 44 megawatts. By comparison, Plant No. 2's two diesel engines and one emergency generator, combined, are rated at 37.2 megawatts, according to Freeport Electric's Web site.
Bautista warned that new plants smaller than 80 megawatts avoid a state Article 10 environmental review. In the city, he said, NYPA coupled two LM6000s at its 10 new power plants. So, the assumption was that the plants would be subject to environmental review, because each plant had a generation capability of 88 megawatts. NYPA, however, capped the generators at the plants so they could produce no more than 79.9 megawatts of power, thereby circumventing Article 10 scrutiny.
Bautista said Article 10 would have provided state monies for residents to hire their own environmental experts to research the new plants' effects on the environment and health -- $1,000 per megawatt, for a total of $88,000 per power plant.
At issue with the LM6000s in the city, he said, was the turbines' pollution control system, which uses ammonia to reduce emissions of nitrogen of oxide (NOX). NOX is known to contribute to global warming and harm human health. The control system, called selective catalytic reduction, is added to the LM6000 after manufacture. It results in the lowest emissions of NOX now possible, 2.5 parts per million. Without the system, the LM6000 emits 9-10 ppm of NOX.
The system, however, can emit ammonia into the atmosphere, as well as increase soot levels, said Bautista.
In its LM6000 handbook, General Electric states that potential concerns with use of ammonia to control NOX include "exhaust emission of ammonia (known as ammonia slip); concerns about accidental release of stored ammonia to the atmosphere, and environmental concerns..."
New York Lawyers found a new system, called SCONOX, which lowers NOX emissions without ammonia. Only one power plant in the country, in Vernon, Calif., now uses SCONOX, according to General Electric.
New York Lawyers recently sued New York State on behalf of Communities United for Responsible Energy, arguing in state Supreme Court that the plants were rated at greater than 80 megawatts when electric generation needed for pollution controls was factored in. An Article 10 review was thus needed. NYPA rebutted that only electricity the plant produces could count. New York Lawyers lost the suit. The group appealed and lost again. The generators are up and running.
LM6000s around the Island
The New York Power Authority also recently sited an LM6000 at Pilgrim State Hospital in Brentwood, a modest, Latino community, said Raacke, the LIPA watchdog. Additionally, LM6000s can be found at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens.
Raacke said the trouble with the Brentwood LM6000 is that it's a simple-cycle turbine, as opposed to the more-advanced, combined-cycle unit. A simple-cycle turbine only generates electricity. The combined-cycle model recaptures exhaust heat to power a secondary, steam-powered generator, which creates still more electricity. The simple-cycle unit is "inefficient and wasteful compared to the combined cycle," said Raacke.
The simple-cycle LM6000 converts only 35 percent of spent natural gas into actual electricity, while the combined-cycle unit converts 55 to 60 percent, said Raacke. Because the combined cycle is far more energy efficient, it pollutes far less, he said.
"It's a shame that, in this day of high energy prices and pollution, we are still willing to accept technologies that waste a great amount of fuel and still generate a tremendous amount of pollution," said Raacke.
Banks, of Clear the Air, said that simple-cycle turbines "are not the cleanest thing out there. Typically, they're used in peaker plants [which run during times of peak demand for electricity], because they're cheap and easy to install."
Typical installation time for a simple-cycle LM6000 is one year, compared to two years for the combined-cycle, said Raacke. He also noted that the combined-cycle requires more space.
He also said the Brentwood project was "really ramroded through."
Of the Brentwood LM6000, LIPA Chairman Kessel said in December 2000: "This is an important project for Long Island...Adding new, on-island generating capacity...provides us with a mix of solutions that will serve our customers well."
In the end, said Bautista, people must begin conserving energy and making use of renewable energy sources. Otherwise, he said, Long Island will inevitably "get hammered by multiple power-plant sitings."
New York writing next Energy Plan
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority is developing its next Energy Plan for the state. By law, the authority must develop such a plan every four years.
Paul DeCotis, director of energy analysis for the authority, said the plan gives state residents the chance to offer input about the future of New York's energy programs.
ERDA representatives will meet with resident groups through the end of the year to hear concerns about energy planning. Those concerns then might be addressed in the state's next Energy Plan, DeCotis said.
The ERDA Board of Directors comprises the chairman of the state Public Service Commission and commissioners of the departments of Environmental Conservation, Transportation and Economic Development.
The board directed ERDA to look into five issues in its next Energy Plan, which takes effect in 2002. Issues include energy-industry competition, public-benefit energy programs for low-income residents and the effect of the state's energy policies on the environment, economic development and transportation.
ERDA received 47 responses during a 60-day public-comment period for the plan in May and June. Public hearings are expected over the draft plan in spring 2002.
ERDA's Web site is www.nyserda.org. To set up a meeting with ERDA, resident groups can e-mail Tom Collins, communications director, tgc@nysdera.org.
