New Power Plant Placed into Commercial Operation in Queens by N.Y. Power Authority

Contact
Connie Cullen
914-390-8196
connie.cullen@nypa.gov

December 31, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

QUEENS—New York City has a new clean source of electricity to meet its future demand needs as a result of the New York Power Authority (NYPA) placing into commercial service a 500-megawatt power plant here that will be the cleanest and most efficient generating facility ever built in the city.

“This is a milestone we’ve been looking forward to,” said Joseph J. Seymour, chairman, NYPA. “The plant will provide greater flexibility in the operation of less clean generating plants, making it possible to reduce their use, especially during the peak-demand, summer air-conditioning season.”

Seymour noted that the plant is the first new large generating facility built in the city in decades. It incorporates a combined-cycle technology for capturing heat normally lost in the production of electricity, making it more fuel efficient and cleaner. Natural gas powers two turbine-generators to produce power. The resulting hot gases are then harnessed to create steam to drive another turbine-generator.

The new plant, located on a 47-acre, East River site shared by another NYPA generating facility, comes equipped with the most advanced emission controls.

The Power Authority built the new combined-cycle plant to help it continue to meet the electricity requirements of its large government customers in New York City, who save hundreds of millions of dollars a year in lower energy costs as NYPA customers. They include tax-supported schools, hospitals, municipal buildings, and the subways and commuter trains.

In addition to providing them with economical electricity, the Power Authority also invests heavily in energy-efficiency, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on such initiatives in the five boroughs. To date, these measures have reduced peak electricity usage by nearly 92 megawatts, or enough to meet the electricity requirements of about 75,000 homes, saving taxpayers approximately $55 million a year. The efforts have also reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than 443,000 tons a year.