News Release Date: November 5, 2007

LIPA Issues RFP for Renewable Energy

 
Uniondale, NY—
The Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) today issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) soliciting proposals from firms interested in providing electric energy generated from renewable generating facilities and associated Renewable Energy Certificates to LIPA (Renewable Energy). The purpose of the RFP is to promote the establishment of new Renewable Energy projects on Long Island and in other markets accessible to LIPA and to use the Renewable Energy to help meet LIPA’s voluntary goal of meeting the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard Program (RPS Program).

The RFP seeks to obtain Renewable Energy from new and existing projects located in New York, New England, and the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland (PJM) electricity markets. The PJM market has only recently become accessible to LIPA as the result of LIPA having contracted for the full capacity of the Neptune cable, which was completed this past summer. LIPA is interested in purchasing two blocks of Renewable Energy for a period of 10 years with each block consisting of 150 gigawatt-hours per year (each about 1% of LIPA’s total annual energy needs). Deliveries would commence on July 1, 2008 for Block 1 and on July 1, 2009 for Block 2.

“As the demand for electricity on Long Island continues to grow, it is essential that LIPA acquire more renewable energy resources that will benefit our environment by reducing our dependence on fossil fuel-generated electricity,” said LIPA President and CEO Kevin S. Law. “The RFP issued today will help the Authority meet our Renewable Energy commitment for the next two years.”

“Using renewable energy sources like wind and solar instead of oil and natural gas will enable LIPA to provide our growing electricity needs without contributing to global warming and air pollution,” said Gordian Raacke, Executive Director of Renewable Energy Long Island (RELI), a not-for-profit organization conducting outreach and education on clean energy technologies. “As an added bonus, renewable energy provides insurance against roller-coaster oil prices caused by unpredictable geopolitical forces and the whims of OPEC regimes.”

Each proposer in the RFP must demonstrate that its Renewable Energy project:

  • meets the generation type and fuel source requirements of the LIPA RPS Program,
  • is either a new resource or is not included in the baseline generation sources of any other State’s RPS Program; and
  • is not being counted as a Renewable Resource in any other State’s RPS Program.

The proposed Renewable Energy project must also be in commercial operation prior to July 1, 2008, or July 1, 2009 depending on whether the proposer seeks to sell energy under Block 1 or Block 2.

The RFP requires that proposals be submitted to LIPA by January 11, 2008 and LIPA anticipates proposal selection to occur at LIPA’s Board of Trustees meeting in March 2008.

To facilitate communications between LIPA and potential proposers, and to ensure that all entities have access to the same information, LIPA will post the RFP and all information involving the RFP on its web site at http://www.lipower.org . In addition, LIPA will hold a Proposers Conference at LIPA’s offices in Uniondale, New York on November 28, 2007.

At the conference, LIPA staff will provide an overview of key elements of the RFP and answer questions from interested parties. Further details of the conference will be posted on LIPA’s Web site.

Throughout the RFP process, potential proposers are encouraged to pose questions to LIPA relevant to the RFP and LIPA. In turn LIPA will post responses available to all potential proposers on its Web site. 

LIPA, a non-profit municipal electric provider, owns the retail electric Transmission and Distribution System on Long Island and provides electric service to more than 1.1 million customers in Nassau and Suffolk counties and the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens. LIPA is the 2nd largest municipal electric utility in the nation in terms of electric revenues, 3rd largest in terms of customers served and the 7th largest in terms of electricity delivered. In 2010, LIPA outperformed all other overhead electric utilities in New York State for frequency of service interruptions, and ranked second for duration of service interruptions. LIPA does not provide natural gas service or own any on-island generating assets. More information about LIPA can be found online at: http://www.lipower.org.

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Media Contact Information
Mark Gross
Phone - (516) 719-9892
Media Pager - (516) 229-7248
media.relations@lipower.org


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