Long Islanders will pay an average of more than $7 per month in electric bills next year

Long Islanders can expect to pay an average $193.98 per month for electricity in 2025 under the budget LIPA’s board approved Wednesday, up more than $7 from the bill last year for a typical residential customer.

The anticipated increase of 3.9% to the typical Long Island Power Authority bill is driven primarily by $106 million in interest payments for the utility’s $10 billion-plus debt, LIPA officials said, though that debt load is projected to drop in coming years. Other factors behind the increase include higher power supply costs and an anticipated rise in electricity use as more Long Islanders drive electric vehicles and buy heat pumps instead of gas furnaces to heat and cool their homes. Customers who hold their electrical use steady will see smaller bill increases, according to LIPA officials.

LIPA’s $4.4 billion operating budget will be supplemented by a $1 billion capital spending plan to fund offshore transmission projects and a new operations yard.

As good as it gets

"This budget proposal keeps prices below the rate of inflation, minimizes costs to customers and ... funds everything we need to fund," said acting LIPA chief executive John Rhodes at the meeting. "I’m mindful that times are tough and any rate increase is a rate increase," Rhodes added, but the spending plan is "about as good an outcome as you can get in these difficult economic times."

LIPA’s delivery rate increase is below the 2.5% cap that would trigger a review by the state. Officials with the utility said during the budget presentation that rates have risen slower than those for other regional utilities, and below the inflation rate.

The board on Wednesday also approved contracts for large-scale battery storage projects in Shoreham and the Islip section of Hauppauge, both of which could be built by 2028, said LIPA and contractor Key Capture Energy. Those projects would guarantee LIPA a combined 129 megawatts, enough to power 25,000 homes. Key Capture has also submitted a proposal for a 50-megawatt facility in West Babylon.

"You can’t run a modern electric grid without energy storage," said Gary Stephenson, LIPA’s senior vice president for power supply, at the budget presentation.

Batteries store energy from intermittent sources, such as solar and wind, that are projected to supply more than 70% of New York State’s grid by 2030 and can be used to stabilize the grid during peak usage times.

State energy officials have set a goal of 6,000 megawatts of energy storage by 2030.

Two small facilities are already operating on Long Island’s South Fork. But after a fire at an East Hampton battery storage facility burned for more than 30 hours last year, many Long Island towns — Islip and Babylon included — imposed moratoriums on new permits, preventing others from being built. Some residents have said fires at battery storage facilities could threaten neighbors’ health and property values and that some are proposed too close to schools.

Fire code updates

Proposed state fire code updates announced this summer for the battery energy storage system industry include a requirement that every facility be equipped with an emergency response plan, regular inspections and a requirement that representatives with knowledge of a facility be available for dispatch within 15 minutes.

Babylon this week extended a moratorium on the facilities for six months. Islip’s moratorium extends through March.

Representatives for the two towns did not respond to emailed requests for comment, but a Key Capture spokesman said in an email the company’s Islip project had received several approvals as an allowable use before the moratorium there was enacted.

"We look forward to working with the Town Board, fire safety officials, and other community leaders to ensure any concerns and questions are answered as we continue the development process," Phil Denara, Key Capture’s director of development, said in an emailed statement.

Jordan Christensen, a program coordinator for the Farmingdale-based advocacy group Citizens Campaign for the Environment, spoke in favor of the approvals at Wednesday’s meeting.

"We can build them safely and we can build them in places that make sense," she said in a phone interview after the meeting, calling the battery facilities "a critical piece of our clean energy transition."

Batteries would reduce the need for about 30 "peaker plants" across Long Island that burn natural gas to supply power at times of peak demand, Christensen said. They are among the "most antiquated and polluting of our power plants," she said.