South Fork Wind, state's 1st offshore array, a steady producer so far, LIPA says

With two months of full operation under its belt, Long Island’s first offshore wind array has been a steady producer for the power-starved South Fork, LIPA said, reducing power needs from larger fossil-fueled plants, though not yet enough to eliminate temporary summer gas generators in the Hamptons.

The array, located in ocean waters 35 miles northeast of Montauk, exceeded its July forecast by around 17%, LIPA said, while August operation came in at 3% below projections.

The figures are generally in line with projections for the project as LIPA and contractor PSEG Long Island work to integrate intermittent wind power for the first time into a grid that relies chiefly on steadily producing fossil-fuel plants and always-available undersea cables for its power.

LIPA commissioned the South Fork Wind Farm originally with Deepwater Wind in 2017 and worked with Denmark-based Orsted and its partner Eversource to see it through to completion in March. The first power from some of the nearly 1,000-foot turbines off the coast of New England reached Long Island in December. The entire project was completed in March, but testing continued through the spring.

South Fork Wind is the nation’s first utility-scale wind farm in federal waters, part of a project by LIPA to make sure the power-starved Hamptons had enough power as energy use increased there. The plan included two large battery storage units in Montauk and East Hampton and demand-reduction efforts that fell somewhat short of goals, observers have said.

Gary Stephenson, LIPA’s senior vice president for power supply, said the mercurial nature of wind power has required the utility to manage the grid’s demand and production curves more closely to make sure there’s enough power, particularly during peak summer loads. PSEG monitors the power source as part of its larger contract to manage the LIPA grid.

"We’re learning every day," Stephenson said, including forecasting anticipated wind speeds down to the minute to make sure LIPA has enough reserve power should the wind drop off. "As we get closer to the time of delivery we fine tune that forecast, lining up fuel for power plants to fit around the wind."

The forecasts are a day ahead, then as much as every five minutes. "There are lots of skills that have to be built here," he said. It’s been going on for months, and will continue as LIPA prepares for an even larger offshore wind farm, Sunrise Wind, to come online during the next year and a half.

John Rhodes, interim chief executive of LIPA, said the integration of South Fork Wind’s energy into the grid shows that Long Island’s example can lead the state and the nation.

"The real message is we know how to make this work," said Rhodes, a former Public Service Commission chairman. "It’s exactly what we expected and it’s why our plans make sense ... This is innovation that works."

The 130-megawatt array produces maximum power at wind speeds of around 30 mph, Stephenson said. On Friday, the wind around the array was around 20 mph and the system was steadily producing around 70 megawatts. Each megawatt that offshore wind produces is enough energy to power around 400 homes. Stephenson said the turbines are locked if wind speeds hit 60 mph or more.

New York State says South Fork Wind can power up to 70,000 homes at full 130-megawatt capacity, but that figure won't anywhere near the normal range. LIPA said the average output of the array will vary between 40 megawatts in summer and 80 megawatts on average in winter. 

Newsday first reported in 2017 that the winter months would see the greatest production, which appeared to work counter to LIPA and PSEG’s aim to use South Fork as part of a larger plan to address South Fork energy demand, which was increasing 2% a year. The plan included a $500-million-plus grid upgrade, which is nearly complete, that largely resolved the South Fork energy problem by increasing transmission capacity to western power sources.

The South Fork array is being closely watched as New York State embarks on a larger plan to commission some 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035. Another project under construction, called Sunrise Wind, will feed another 924 megawatts onto the Long Island grid by 2026, and another 14 miles off the coast of Long Beach, Empire Wind, will feed its 810 megawatts into the New York City grid at around the same time.

Commercial fishing interests and some residents of Long Beach have continued to oppose offshore wind, citing loss of fishing grounds, impaired views and cost concerns.

South Fork Wind is expected to increase customer bills by around $1.58 a month and the state says Sunrise and Empire will hike average customers' bills by a combined $2.09 a month.

South Fork Wind produced 38,711 megawatt-hours of energy during July, LIPA said. Average output for the 12 turbines for the month was 52 megawatts, 17% above LIPA’s initial forecast of 44 megawatts.

For August, the South Fork array produced 27,263 megawatt-hours, slightly below the forecast 28,044 megawatt-hours, with average production of 38 megawatts, 3% below forecast.

By comparison, the 350-megawatt Caithness power plant in Yaphank produced 214,776 megawatt-hours in July 2023, and 225,675 megawatt-hours for the month of January. Power from the $2 billion South Fork Wind Farm, among the cleanest in the LIPA portfolio, is two to three times more expensive than gas-based power, Newsday has reported. 

The latest U.S. Census says there are some 69,000 residents of Southampton and 28,000 in East Hampton, but the figures more than double during the summer months. Newsday has reported that peak summer load for the Hamptons is expected to hit 170 megawatts by 2030.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.