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Power Company's Plan Doesn't Protect Rockaway from Future Floods, City Says

By Katie Honan | October 23, 2014 1:41pm
 A PSEG worker installs an induction light. New York City officials are concerned the power company's plan shafts the Rockaway peninsula and doesn't plan for future storms or flooding.
A PSEG worker installs an induction light. New York City officials are concerned the power company's plan shafts the Rockaway peninsula and doesn't plan for future storms or flooding.
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Flickr/PSEGpics

FAR ROCKAWAY — A new multimillion dollar plan for the power company that serves Rockaway doesn’t do enough to protect from future floods and storms, the city says.

PSEG, which has managed the Long Island Power Authority since Jan. 1, submitted its $345 million Utility 2.0 Long Range Plan in July, which proposes energy efficient investments and improvements to power metering over four years.

The power company, which covers Long Island as well as Rockaway, is planning an appliance replacement program for NYCHA buildings and other multi-family buildings on the peninsula. 

City officials, though, are concerned that the plan doesn’t do enough to protect utilities from future storms.

Daniel Zarrilli, the director of the Office of Recovery and Resiliency, sent a letter on Tuesday to the state’s Public Service Commission outlining his concerns.

“The plan’s projects do not appear to contemplate or address future climate change or severe weather hazards,” Zarrilli wrote.

Power was knocked out to the peninsula, the only place in the city not covered by Con Ed, for nearly two weeks after the 2012 storm.

The city has worked with Con Ed on reinforcing its substations and switches across the city, an official said.

But Zarrilli doesn’t think PSEG is taking the same steps for its infrastructure in Rockaway, including elevating its equipment three feet about FEMA’s 100-year flood maps, which is required by the city in flood-prone areas.

“Unless such measures are taken, the cost-effectiveness of the investments PSEG proposes to make pursuant to the plan will be compromised,” Zarrilli wrote.

The second phase of the plan also cut the funding for the Far Rockaway-Universal Access Program, an energy efficiency program, by more than half without “adequate justification,” Zarrilli said.

The solar component of the plan was cut entirely, and the city is “concerned that these changes will eliminate projects that are necessary to increase energy efficiency” in Rockaway.

The city urged the state’s public service committee to “recommend that adequate funding for the Rockaways is available.”

A spokesman for PSEG said they are currently reviewing suggestions from the public for the comment period, which closed Oct. 21.

It was not immediately clear how many public comments were submitted.