Transmitting power from Fire Island

One of the issues facing Cook Inlet Region Inc.’s proposed Fire Island wind farm, offshore Anchorage, is the cost of transmitting the Fire Island power from the island to connect with the electricity grid onshore. CIRI has secured $25 million in state funding to construct a subsea transmission line from Fire Island to the mainland.

In a March 30 letter to CIRI, setting out requirements for the purchase of Fire Island wind power, Anchorage utility Municipal Light & Power said that it would want the purchase point for the power to be an electric substation at Anchorage International Airport, and that the wind farm needs to bear the cost and risk associated with the delivery of power from the island. The airport is onshore, not far from Fire Island.

During a March 31 press conference ML&P General Manager James Posey said that there are reliability risks associated with underground power transmission lines and that ML&P has estimated the cost of the Fire Island intertie at $35 million.

On April 4 CIRI spokesman Jim Jager told Petroleum News that CIRI’s design for the intertie is highly robust, based on CEAs specifications, with the line having excess capacity to potentially incorporate, for example, power from a tidal power system being proposed for offshore Fire Island.

Jager said that CIRI’s cost estimates indicate that the state grant would come close to covering the cost of the intertie but that CIRI would incorporate any cost overrun into the overall cost of the wind farm project.

—Alan Bailey