State regulators gave the green light to build a battery repository at the Astoria Generating Station as part of the Luyster Creek Energy Storage project.
The New York Public Service Commission approved the necessary permits for Eastern Generation to develop enough battery storage capacity that will provide more than 135 MegaWatts of energy by 2025 at the same location where the Charles Poletti Power Plant once stood.
Shut down in 2011 and then dismantled, the Poletti natural gas and oil plant was deemed the city’s worst polluter and a prime reason why western Queens, which produces 60 percent of the city’s electricity, was nicknamed Asthma Alley, where generations of residents have suffered the highest rates of respiratory ailments in the city.
Eastern Generation, LLC, an affiliate of ArchLight Capital Partners, owns generating stations that account for over 18% of New York City’s power generation capacity. Energy storage projects are necessary to improve the flexibility and reliability of the electric system as New York City transitions away from dispatchable fossil-fueled generation to offshore wind and other intermittent renewable resources. The Luyster Creek Energy Storage projects will help maximize the energy that renewables can provide to the system and reduce reliance on capacity provided by existing fossil-fueled generation.
EasternGeneration is a leading private equity firm focused on energy, infrastructure and energy transition. Founded in 2001, the firm helped pioneer an asset-based approach to investing across the power, renewables, infrastructure and broader energy value chain. Since then, ArcLight has invested approximately $26 billion in 116 transactions, including more than $10 billion of equity capital into the electrification segment, which includes power, transmission, renewable infrastructure and energy transition investment.
“Eastern Generation stands ready to help Governor Hochul and New York meet its ambitious target of at least 6,000 Megawatts of storage by the year 2030,” ArcLight Managing Partner Dan Rivers said.
Eastern Generation is expected to submit Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity applications for additional storage projects at its Gowanus and Narrows stations, which will provide a combined 350 MegaWatts when fully operational. All three battery projects are located at existing power generating facilities, which are industrially zoned, buffered from residential communities and have established connections to the power grid.
“The Luyster Creek projects can be fully operational as soon as 2025 if market conditions permit and proper economic incentive investments are made by the state,” Eastern Generation CEO Mark Sudbey said.
