Con Edison, Long Island to Seek Wind Farm Proposals (Update1)

March 23 (Bloomberg) -- Consolidated Edison Inc., owner of New York’s electric utility, and the state-owned Long Island Power Authority will solicit proposals by year-end for an offshore wind farm capable of powering 250,000 homes.

Upgrading high-voltage power lines and transformers to accommodate the 350-megawatt projects is feasible and would cost about $415 million, according to a study made public today by the two power companies. They will request proposals this year from developers, authority spokesman Ed Dumas said in an interview.

Con Edison, based in New York, and the power authority are trying to meet a goal set by Governor David Paterson to get 45 percent of the state’s energy from renewable sources or conservation by 2015. The authority in 2007 scuttled an $811 million, 140-megawatt offshore project proposed by FPL Group Inc. after the cost estimate quadrupled.

“I am strongly encouraged by the preliminary analysis,” Authority Chief Executive Officer Kevin Law said today in a statement. The authority “will bring the project to fruition if we can make it cost-effective for our customers,” he said.

The project would be 13 miles (21 kilometers) off Rockaway Peninsula in the Atlantic Ocean. Doubling the project to 700 megawatts, enough for a half-million homes, may be feasible, the study said. The two companies filed an application with New York’s grid operator to connect a wind farm as large as 1,400 megawatts.

Rhode Island, Massachusetts

The U.S. has yet to build an offshore wind farm. New Jersey regulators in October accepted a proposal for a 350-megawatt offshore wind project from a joint venture of Public Service Enterprise Group Inc., owner of the state’s largest utility, and closely held Deepwater Wind.

Deepwater Wind in January signed an agreement with Rhode Island to develop offshore turbines that would provide 15 percent of that state’s power.

Cape Wind Associates LLC won U.S. Interior Department approval Jan. 16 to erect 130 wind turbines producing as much as 420 megawatts of power in Nantucket Sound, Massachusetts. The project has been under state and federal review since 2001.

State approval may be pending, according to the Cape Wind Web site.

For more news and information: Stories on U.S. Wind projects: {TNI WIND US BN <GO>} To graph the benchmark wholesale power price in New York: {ELEFNWON <Index> GP <GO>} For top energy news: {ETOP <GO>}

To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Polson in New York at jpolson@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tony Cox at acox3@bloomberg.net.