The state Department of Public Service has started a review of PSEG Long Island’s plan to install 80-foot utility poles from Great Neck to Port Washington to determine if the project is necessary, according to a letter the department sent Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Judi Bosworth.
“The Department of Public Service has commenced an independent review to determine the reliability need associated with the ongoing project,” state Department of Public Services CEO Audrey Zibelman wrote in a letter dated April 15. “The results of the reliability study will help determine if there is any merit to stop the project.”
Zibelman said the department expects that review to be completed by April 30.
The utility’s project, which began in late January, consists of the installation of transmission lines along 80-foot poles starting from Great Neck, running through Bayview Avenue in Manhasset, and ending in Port Washington. A mile of underground wires are also scheduled to be installed in the Village of Thomaston.
PSEG officials have said the project is intended to enhance the electrical grid of the Town of North Hempstead, which had come under intense criticism following Superstorm Sandy when many portions of the town lost power for more than two weeks.
The installation of the poles drew outrage from residents in mid-Februrary when Port Washington resident Christine Hogan started a petition asking PSEG to halt work and bury the lines underground, claiming the poles are “aesthetically unpleasing.”
The petition, which also blasts the utility company for not giving residents advanced notice of the project, had more than 1,400 signatures from residents in Great Neck, Manhasset and Port Washington at press time.
Residents and town officials also criticized PSEG Long Island President David Daly for a lack of transparency at a town-sponsored forum March 25.
“PSEG Long Island have fallen short of the common standard of informing the community,” Bosworth said at the forum. “The transparency just hasn’t been there and our community feels compromised as a result.”
Daly said that the company started the project in response to an energy forecast study done by the utility company which found that “in 2014, there wasn’t going to be enough wire in the air” to supply the town with an adequate supply of energy during the summer months.
The utility company took control of the grid’s operations after LIPA and National Grid were blasted for their response to Superstorm Sandy and their failure to properly maintain the electrical grid.
PSEG spokesman Jeffrey Weir said the company has installed “200 of the 220 poles” and “just more than 10 percent of the transmission wire has been strung.” Weir said the project is expected to be completed before the end of May.
Weir said PSEG had no problem with the department of public services review.
PSEG Long Island, he said, “always welcome comments from the Department of Public Service and we believe that they’re asking the right questions.”
Zibelman said in her letter that in response to requests from town officials and residents her department will look into the feasibility of burying the wires, That study, Zibelman said, will be completed by mid-May.
Weir said in an e-mail that the utility company is “ready to underground the transmission lines, provided the Town of North Hempstead funds it at their own expense without any increased cost to the rest of Long Island’s ratepayers.”
Zibelman’s letter comes a month after state Assemblywoman Michelle Schimel (D-Great Neck) and state Senator Jack Martins urged Gov. Andrew Cuomo to direct the department to halt the project so alternatives can be discussed with residents.
Bosworth praised the decision by Zibelman to review the project.
“It is great news that the state’s Department of Public Service has, at our urging and at the direction of our state elected officials, launched an independent review of the PSEG-LI project,” Bosworth said. “I am hopeful that in the future the department will direct the PSEG-LI to communicate more openly with the communities they serve.”
