The New York Power
Authority next month will seek up to 500 MW of capacity to
be supplied by private developers. The RFP, in development
for several months, was announced shortly after a state comptroller’s
audit that severely criticized NYPA’s project to construct
a 500-MW gas-fired combined-cycle generation plant in Queens.
STEAMED
Workers set steam turbine at criticized 500-MW NYPA powerplant
in Astoria. (Photo Courtesy of NYPA)
The audit report criticized NYPA
for its management of the powerplant’s costs, which rose
from an initial estimate of $375 million to $650 million.
NYPA officials strongly disagree with the criticisms.
Slattery Skanska, College Point,
N.Y., is building the disputed powerplant adjacent to the
875-MW Charles Poletti Power Project in Astoria under a $242.1-million
contract. A NYPA spokesman says remaining costs are attributed
to materials and equipment and licensing costs.
The dual-fuel Poletti unit began
operation in 1977. It will be shut down by 2010 under an accord
with environmental groups, which agreed in 2002 to support
NYPA’s application to build the cleaner 500-MW combined-cycle
plant.
At a May 12 conference of the Independent
Power Producers of New York, NYPA President and CEO Eugene
W. Zeltmann said, “We’re looking for as much as
500 MW of in-city capacity.... We fully expect to meet those
needs with commitments from private developers.”
“We supported that decision,”
says Jeffrey S. Gordon, a spokesman for Comptroller Alan G.
Hevesi. “It was the kind of thing we suggested they could
have considered when NYPA decided to build.” The audit
criticized the power authority for ignoring possible private
development options.
But NYPA needed the plant
on line by summer 2005, and in 2002, “independent power
producers weren’t building anything in the city of New
York,” says Peter Barden, NYPA spokesman. The 1998 estimate
of $375 million “changed as we received bids for the
construction,” says Michael Saltzman, another spokesman.
He says only two bids were received for the project in late
April 2002. He blames the increase on “a lack of competition
for construction services due to the limited number of qualified
contractors.”
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