Proposed electric cable will effect Wantagh, Seaford

Poseidon Transmission, LLC will file an application on October 1 with the New York Public Service Commission requesting authorization to construct an underground submarine electric transmission line whose preferred cable route includes local streets in Wantagh and Seaford.

Poseidon Transmission proposes to bring an additional 500 MW (megawatts) of power to the Long Island power grid. The proposed underground cable will connect the Deans Substation in South Brunswick, New Jersey to the Ruland Road Substation in the Town of Huntington using high-voltage, direct current technology called HDVC.

In New York the transmission line will run under the outer New York Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, make landfall near Jones Beach and then head north, running underground along portions of the Wantagh State Parkway and Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway as well as parallel local roads.

The cable will then head east along Southern State Parkway and Bethpage State Park, make its way through state and local roadways to Route 110 and to the Ruland Road substation.

Poseidon Transmission LLC is described in a letter to the New York Power Authority from Edward Krapels, Manager of the project as “a special purpose vehicle whose members are subsidiaries of two entities, Anbaric Transmission LLC and Exelon Transmission Company.

Anbaric Transmission LLC was involved in the development of the Neptune Regional Transmission System, another underground cable that runs along the Wantagh Parkway to the Newbridge Road substation. That transmission cable provides 660 MW of HDVC power from New Jersey. This system has been in operation since 2007.

“The energy and capacity supplied by this underwater and underground cable will provide exceptional reliability benefits to southeastern New York, help make possible the Authority’s stated goal of enabling the Indian Point Energy Center to close, offering low cost energy to Long Island’s ratepayers...and delivering a clean environmental profile,” wrote Dr. Krapels.

However, the Neptune Project raised questions about its impact to the marine environment and the fragile wetlands along the South Shore of Long Island.

A copy of the Poseidon proposal is available at the Wantagh and Seaford Public Library. No public hearing date has been set at this time.

If the project is approved, it would be up and running by June of 2016.