Power station could provide backup electricity

The Town Board will lead environmental review of a proposed 20-megawatt electric-generating station to be built off Frank Sottile Boulevard by Minnesota-based Lincoln Park DG LLC.

Peter Rood, chief development officer for project sponsor Glide Path, said the station would provide backup electricity in the event of power outages.

“The new Lincoln Park Support Center is a project designed to support the electric in the local and regional area by providing several day-to-day services, as well as emergency services, as needed to support the grid and to ensure reliable and low-cost energy,” Rood said Thursday.

Under the proposal there would be two, 10-megawatt generators that use a combination of lithium-ion batteries and natural gas as energy sources.

Rood said the facility would be unique in its designation as a backup system.

“It also can provide emergency services in the event of a outage or other longterm or short-term disruption in power supply, and those include ... microgrid services, which, in coordination with Central Hudson, allow certain customers to be fed power before the entire grid is restored,” he said.

The project would cover about 3 acres of a 122-acre site — consisting of three parcels owned by Kingston Landing LLC — and extend from Miron Lane to state Route 32.

“We chose this site because it has existing, highvoltage electrical infrastructure on the site, as well as existing natural gas transmission, which allows us to connect to those two services without having to build significant, new, linear facilities [at] the site,” Rood said. “The site also has the space to put the project without having significant impacts to wetlands or endangered species or other sorts of environmental concerns.”

The west side of the site abuts about 15 residential properties on Ledge Road and Risely Street, but the developer does not expect there will be an impact from noise created by the generators, which would be enclosed and about 700 feet from the nearest neighbor.

“It’s one of the reasons the equipment is inside of a building,” Rood said. “We’re working with the manufacturers, but don’t expect to have any sort of noises outside of the property area that would be a nuisance to any of the neighbors.”

Rood said he didn’t know of similar facilities in the state that serve as backup generators.

“The technology is not necessarily new, but the concept is relatively new,” he said.

Rood said his company recently built large-scale, stand-alone battery projects near Chicago.