Cable Test Sends Power to Connecticut
By Erik Holm
September 5, 2003
W -- The controversial power cable has been operating under Long Island Sound without restrictions for four days, but yesterday the Cross-Sound Cable was used for a new experiment -- to help get power to southwestern Connecticut.
Yet, even as the operators of the cable proved it was possible to send energy from Long Island to that part of the state, others questioned whether it was feasible to repeat the task inexpensively, and at the times when Connecticut would need it most. Southwest Connecticut has long suffered from transmission problems that drive up the cost of power there.
New York and Connecticut politicians have been bickering about the use of the cable for two years. Until the federal government issued an emergency order the day after last month's blackout allowing limited use of the cable, the $150-million power line had not operated, though the company that built it completed work more than a year ago. Connecticut regulators had blocked the cable from being activated until then, as politicians there said that it posed an environmental hazard and would send energy to Long Island that could otherwise be used in Connecticut. New York politicians disputed both assertions, and said the cable could also be used to supply Connecticut with power.
The cable is now sending 100 megawatts a day, or enough to power roughly 100,000 homes, to Long Island without restrictions -- a second federal order went into effect Monday that lifted all limits on its use. Skeptics in Connecticut have said they doubt the cable would ever be used to help their state.
Yesterday, however, an hourlong test -- coordinated by the New England and New York Independent System Operators, which regulate the electricity grids in their respective regions -- sent the 100 megawatts of power down the cable from New Haven to Shoreham, and then west across Long Island to Northport. From there, it was sent to Norwalk via another underwater cable.
Long Island Power Authority Chairman Richard Kessel said the test "showed that the Cross-Sound Cable can be utilized in a very positive way for people in Connecticut."
Frank Poirot, spokesman for Northeast Utilities, parent company of CL&P, said his company agreed that "technically, it is a possible route that power can travel along," but had its doubts about the costs to Connecticut ratepayers. "Still, if they are willing to provide us with a concrete contract that provides less expensive electricity," Poirot said, "we would want to sit down and talk about that."
Earlier yesterday in Washington, Kessel appeared in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee alongside the heads of several other utilities. "This is the national symbol for what is wrong with the grid," Kessel said of the yearlong delay before the cable was activated. "The federal government needs to take control."
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