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 lightning 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. |
