Long Island offshore shortlist still under consideration

The Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) has still not chosen a company to install New York State's first offshore wind generating facility. LIPA, a quasi-governmental agency, had said it would announce the successful applicant at the end of September or sometime in October. The agency now says the announcement may come this month, or possibly later. "This slippage in schedule is generally the result of the uniqueness of the project itself and the complexity and resulting time required to thoroughly review and evaluate the two shortlisted proposals," said LIPA early last month. "LIPA set a very aggressive schedule for the project to help push things along, but we're not going to make a decision on a project of this magnitude and uniqueness without having all the information that we believe is necessary to make a fully informed selection. There's too much at risk to rush to judgement. Nevertheless, despite this relatively slight slip in anticipated award date, expectations for the overall project schedule remain intact." LIPA hopes to have a 140 MW offshore wind project up and operating sometime in 2007. In January, the agency asked for interested applicants to offer proposals. The chosen applicant will receive both a long term power contract signed by LIPA and interconnection funds.