LIPA Initiates Program to Harden Island’s Electric System Against Severe
Storm Damage
LIPA Will Spend $500 Million on Multi -Year Effort
West Amityville, N.Y. – October 17, 2006 – The Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) today announced that it will undertake a new multi-faceted, $500-million, 20-year program to reduce the amount of damage that can be inflicted upon Long Island’s electric Transmission and Distribution (T&D) System by severe storms such as hurricanes.
The 17-point program, the first of its kind for LIPA and Long Island’s electric grid, is designed to improve the T&D system’s durability, resilience and restoration capabilities, which will help lessen the number of service outages caused by severe storms and enhance the ability to restore service quicker when severe storm damage occurs.
LIPA will spend $25 million per year over the next 20 years on the program.
The Severe Storm Hardening Initiative was developed after months of study and review of the lessons learned from the extraordinary damage caused in the Gulf region by last year’s Hurricane Katrina, this summer’s power outages in Queens, and by an extensive re-evaluation of the vulnerabilities of LIPA’s expansive island-wide electric system.
“This is an unprecedented undertaking,” said LIPA Chairman Richard M. Kessel. “Never before has such an extensive study been conducted and such a wide ranging series of comprehensive storm hardening strategies advanced.
“Since Long Island is vulnerable to hurricanes, severe lightening storms and mini-tornadoes, ice storms and blizzards, and heat storms it is imperative that LIPA implement this Severe Storm Hardening Initiative to help protect the welfare of our more than 1.1 million customers, which amounts to a population of over three million people.”
LIPA will begin to implement the program immediately. Certain elements of the program will expand upon actions already undertaken by LIPA through the investment of some $2 billion over the last eight years that have already significantly improved LIPA’s T&D system reliability.
Additionally, as the storm hardening program moves forward, LIPA will continue to: draw upon its own major storm restoration experiences; monitor lessons learned by other utilities; continue to assess the improvements in electric system components, utilize materials and techniques to allow a quicker, more effective implementation of the
severe storm program.
LIPA also recently completed a study of its underground system as a result of problems witnessed earlier this year in Queens. As part of that study, LIPA compared its system against other metropolitan systems. As a result, LIPA will make several changes in design specifications that will limit the number of customers who could be exposed to
underground system failures.
LIPA’s extensive electric T&D system, both underground and overhead, is vulnerable to catastrophic damage from downed trees and flying debris caused by excessive winds, and flooding caused by storm surges in low lying areas on both the south and north shores. To minimize as best as possible the service outages that can result from these kinds of
extraordinary weather-related events, LIPA’s Severe Storm Hardening Initiative sets out three main goals to achieve. They include improving the electric T&D systems:
* Durability by hardening the electric system to lessen the potential of damage from storms;
* Resilience by enhancing the electric system’s flexibility to continue service despite storm damage;
* Restoration capabilities by reducing the time needed to restore service following storms.
To achieve these three main objectives, the Severe Storm Hardening Initiative outlines 17 specific program elements, which include such things as:
* Reconfigure or reconstruct substations to avoid damage from flooding and wind.
* Improve transmission and distribution line design and construction to withstand high winds.
* Reduce the impact of tree contact on distribution lines.
* Seek innovative alternatives to undergrounding transmission and distribution lines in flood and surge zones.
* Protect distribution equipment from storm surge damage.
* Inspect and replace inadequate poles and equipment.
* Leverage LIPA’s leading distribution automation system to manage the scope of outages, and speed reconfiguration and restoration.
* Employ Distributed Generation and Microgrids.
* Upgrade Outage Management Software
* Improve voice and data communications capabilities.
* Implement a more comprehensive resource control system to better manage the use of field personnel during a restoration effort.
* Improve damage assessment process.
The Severe Storm Hardening Initiative will be presented to the LIPA Board of Trustees at its October 18 meeting in Uniondale. Funding for the comprehensive program will be included as part of LIPA’s multi-year capital budget planning process, which has already resulted in nearly $2 billion worth of improvements to the Island’s electric grid.
“The Severe Storm Hardening Initiative will be in addition to all of the routine capital improvement work we do annually to upgrade and expand our system to reliably meet the ever-increasing demand for electricity
on Long Island,” said Mr. Kessel. “We spend, on average, about $200 million annually on capital improvements, which is the main reason we have the most reliable overhead electric system in New York State, and one of the most reliable in the nation.”
LIPA has also identified areas of vulnerability, particularly in its underground network that will be strengthened as part of its new program. LIPA reviewed “lessons learned” from this summer’s Queens Blackout to strengthen its own underground systems which make up approximately 20% of its T&D system.
LIPA, a non-profit municipal electric utility, owns the retail electric Transmission and Distribution System on Long Island and provides electric service to over 1.1 million customers in Nassau and Suffolk counties and the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens. In terms of customers served, LIPA is the 3rd largest municipal electric utility in the nation
and the 6th largest in terms of electricity delivered. LIPA does not provide natural gas service or own any on-island electric generating assets.
LIPA Contact Information:
Media Relations: (516) 719-9892
Media Pager: (516) 525-LIPA
media.relations—-lipower.org
LIPA News Center
http://www.lipower.org/newscenter
LIPA Storm Center
http://www.lipower.org/stormcenter
