Public Hearings in Nassau and Suffolk to take Place in April

(Uniondale, N.Y.) – Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) President and CEO Kevin S. Law announced the release of LIPA’s Draft Electric Resource Plan to meet Long Island’s short and long-term energy needs.

The Draft Electric Resource Plan for 2009-2018 emphasizes the need to focus on energy efficiency, acquiring new sources of renewable energy and repowering and modernizing the existing generating fleet.

“I commend all of our government officials, business leaders and residents who provided comment on the draft outline of our updated Electric Resource Plan last year. Many of the public and written comments received have become incorporated into this draft plan,” said Law. “LIPA’s updated plan will keep pace with the many moving parts of the energy industry including volatile fuel prices, supply, changes in the markets and environmental regulations and policy.”

The Draft Electric Resource Plan contains four key strategies for the period 2009 through 2018;

• Committed investment in energy efficiency
• Acquisition of renewable generation resources,
• Maintaining and upgrading our existing fleet of resources,
• Improving transmission interconnections to enhance the ability to deliver power to the island.

The Draft Electric Resource Plan evaluates over 80 energy efficiency, power generation, repowering, transmission, and renewable energy technologies including solar and wind, identifies various resource scenarios that were considered during the development of the plan, presents 46 recommendations for the plan, and illustrates the economic, production efficiency, reliability and environmental impacts of a plan that implements these recommendations.

The plan is consistent with Governor Paterson’s “45 by 15″ program, which establishes the goal for the state to meet 45 percent of its electricity needs through improved energy efficiency and renewable sources by the year 2015.

LIPA will conduct three separate public hearings with regard to the Draft Electric Resource Plan on the following dates and locations:

Thursday, April 2, 2009 – 10:00AM
William H. Rogers Legislature Building
725 Veterans Memorial Highway
Smithtown, NY

Monday, April 6, 2009 – 11:00AM
Nassau County Legislative Chamber
1550 Franklin Avenue
Mineola, NY

Tuesday, April 7, 2009 – 7:00PM
Melville Marriott
1350 Old Walt Whitman Road
Melville, NY

Written and e-mail input will be accepted through April 30, 2009. Written comments can be emailed to EnergyPlan@lipower.org or sent through regular mail to:

Kevin S. Law
Attn: Draft Electric Resource Plan
Long Island Power Authority
333 Earle Ovington Blvd, Suite 403
Uniondale, NY 11553

The hearings are the fourth phase of a five step public process that includes;

• Publishing a draft outline of the Resource Plan contents;
• Soliciting public input on the draft outline;
• Developing a Draft Resource Plan based on the outline and the public input received;
• Holding public hearings on the Draft Resource Plan;
• Issue a Final Resource Plan based on the public hearings and new information that may become available after the preparation of the Draft

Plan for the consideration by the LIPA Board of Trustees.

A copy of the main volume of Draft Electric Resource Plan is are available on LIPA’s Web site at:
http://www.lipower.org/company/powering/energyplan08.html