Upgrades And New Technology At LIPA
By Laura Mgrdichian September 03, 2003
The Long Island Power Authority announced last Thursday that it plans to spend more than $400 million in power grid and technology upgrades over the next two years. With the help of a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, LIPA also plans on installing an experimental superconducting power cable in one of its grids.
The upgrades to the grid are intended to develop a "self-healing" transmission and distribution system, which would be able to automatically anticipate and respond to disturbances while leaving the rest of the grid intact. The improvements are a continuation of the approximately $1 billion that LIPA has invested in the past five years into its transmission and distribution system.
"We've invested in new transmission and distribution lines. We've upgraded substations and other key system components all across the system," said Richard Kessel, LIPA's chairman. "We have completed hundreds of projects both large and small to improve the system."
Kessel added that LIPA would be taking advantage of new technology, such as the superconducting power cable project that has already begun and Kessel hopes to have finished in about two years. Because of its extremely low electrical resistance, the superconducting cables can transmit three to five times the amount of electricity that ordinary cables can. In the future, these cables could lead to electric grids that are much more reliable and have greatly increased outputs.
The test cable will be about a half-mile long and will run along a portion of East Garden City. It will be the first of its kind to be installed into a live electric grid and is scheduled to begin operation by the end of 2005. With the superconductor in place, the circuit will be capable of powering 300,000 homes.
The total cost of the project will run about $30 million, with the DOE contributing $15 million and LIPA contributing $2 million. The rest of the funds will come from a group of superconducting cable manufacturers, led by the Massachusetts-based company American Superconductor.
©Suffolk Life Newspapers 2003
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