New York state regulators green-light $1.4B Queens power plant

State utilities regulators gave final approval on Thursday for the construction of a $1.4 billion power plant in Astoria, Queens. Now, the company that plans to build it needs to find a buyer for the electricity it will generate.

The Public Service Commission said the plant would replace an older, less-efficient plant.

It would be built in two phases over four years on a 15-acre section of Consolidated Edison’s 600-acre property on the East River that has long been the city’s hub of electricity generation.

“You could see that yellow plume from where we live,” said Anthony J. Gigantiello, an Astoria resident who is president of the Coalition Helping to Organize a Kleaner Environment, or Choke.

He was referring to the emissions from the stacks atop the 40-year-old plant that NRG Energy, a power company based in Princeton, N.J., wants to replace. NRG bought the Astoria plant and another on Staten Island from Con Edison a decade ago.

Mr. Gigantiello’s group formed to oppose the construction of more power plants in the area until some of the older ones that produce the most pollution are shut down. Its primary target was an 800-megawatt plant on the Con Edison site, which was retired last year.

“We’re right in the middle of all these power plants,” Mr. Gigantiello said. “Whenever you close an old generator, we’re all for that.”

He said his group also approved of the plan to replace the 40-foot-tall stacks with some that will release emissions 250 feet from the ground, reducing pollution in the immediate area.

NRG is looking for a buyer to sign a long-term contract to purchase all or a large part of the plant’s output, said David Gaier, a spokesman for the company. Without a buyer lined up, Mr. Gaier said he could not provide a precise schedule for completion of the plant.

Con Edison has no plan to buy power directly from the proposed plant, said Joseph Oates, Con Ed’s vice president of energy management. The NRG plant, which would be fueled by natural gas, would be used during times of high demand. While it would be more expensive to operate than some new plants in the city, the NRG plant could help fulfill the regulatory requirement that plants within the city limits be able to provide at least 80 percent of the city’s peak demand for electricity, Mr. Oates said.

By PATRICK McGEEHAN, The New York Times
Published: January 20, 2011