Charged Up

Thomas Falcone announced last week that he would be leaving his post as chief executive officer of the Long Island Power Authority in May. It was “unexpected,” said State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., who has been working hard in Albany to move LIPA away from its current model to a true public utility. Falcone’s departure is a curveball that “brings into question the future direction of LIPA,” Thiele has said.

But a few days before his announcement clouded the larger picture, Falcone provided a much clearer view of the near- and long-term future of electricity on Long Island, and particularly on the South Fork. He answered a few key questions and painted a fairly rosy picture of power generation in the coming decade and beyond.

Falcone’s presentation to the editorial board of The Express News Group included a presentation on LIPA’s draft integrated resource plan, which details the ongoing transition to greener sources of power. It came just days after Governor Kathy Hochul was on the South Fork to celebrate that South Fork Wind, off Montauk, had come fully online, opening up a new era of wind power for the region.

But it only starts there. LIPA is doing its part to meet New York State’s ambitious plan for 2030, which would see 70 percent of the state’s energy coming from renewable sources, and greenhouse gases reduced by 40 percent. By 2040, the hope is that the state’s electricity all would be provided by green sources rather than fossil fuels.

It’s notable that LIPA is making progress, and quickly. Today, about 43 percent of its electricity comes from fossil fuels at power plants on Long Island, serving 1.2 million customers. But in just six years, the utility expects only 14 percent of the power it needs to be generated in those plants burning natural gas or similar fuels. Wind power is expected to be ready to provide a remarkable 49 percent of the power needs by then.

In case the years-long saga of South Fork Wind has lost some of its magnitude over time, those numbers really drive home what a pivot has been achieved with its turbines beginning to turn last week. Combined with increasing opportunities to add solar power to the grid, the day is coming — perhaps more quickly than many people realized — when green energy will be the only energy. And the South Fork will have led the way.

Falcone also offered some important information to cut through a lot of the hyperbole regarding battery energy storage systems, and perhaps eased some of the concerns in Southampton and East Hampton towns in particular.

Concerns about BESS facilities are legitimate, in part because the technology is new and there is demonstrated volatility around them. They will be important in a new green environment, because solar and wind power are not as reliable as fossil fuel generators — to meet peak demands, there will need to be battery storage built into the delivery system.

But Falcone said two things of note. First, he said there are absolutely no plans to build any BESS facility on the South Fork before 2026 or 2027 — and, potentially, not at all. LIPA recognizes the opposition to BESS facilities in residential areas; while it would be imprudent to say they won’t ever go there, Falcone noted that the utility is very likely to seek locations where there is less resistance. Certainly, on the crowded South Fork, there won’t be many places that qualify.

For now, proposals like the one in Hampton Bays are being presented not by LIPA but by contractors, who then hope to interest the utility in using them. It seems the vocal opposition might well provide a pretty convincing case. (An important proviso: The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority also will be conducting a parallel search for BESS sites, so the concern isn’t completely put to rest.)

The second point: Falcone noted that as LIPA reduces its reliance on fossil fuels, the old plants will be shut down — potentially offering a perfect option for new locations for BESS installations. The plants otherwise will be white elephants that offer little appeal for other uses. But they’ll be nicely situated within the electric distribution system to be flipped into battery storage.

Meanwhile, it will buy valuable time for BESS facilities to be made safer and more efficient. As Falcone noted, “Every generation of technology runs through a maturity cycle. You have to work out the kinks.” In five to 10 years, some of the volatility might be addressed.

It’s a reminder: We have a long way to go, but Long Island — and the East End in particular — are heading in the right direction, confidently and speedily.