Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced the adoption of a joint proposal to build a 7.6-mile transmission line that would link the proposed South Fork offshore wind farm to a substation in the Town of East Hampton, Suffolk County.
The proposal was agreed to and adopted by the New York State Public Service Commission and more than a dozen stakeholders. The transmission line is the first approved project in New York State to connect to an offshore wind farm.
The proposed 132 MW South Fork wind farm project would provide enough clean energy to power 70,000 average homes annually. It would be located 35 miles east of Montauk Point, out of sight from Long Island beaches. The transmission line is expected to be operational by 2023.
The purpose of the project is to transmit electricity generated by the proposed South Fork wind farm to the existing East Hampton substation.
On September 14, 2018, Deepwater Wind South Fork, the developer, filed for a certificate of environmental compatibility and public need for the construction of approximately 3.5 miles of submarine cable from the New York State territorial waters to the south shore of the Town of East Hampton in Suffolk County and approximately 4.1 miles of underground cable from the south shore to an existing East Hampton substation. In addition to requiring that the cable will be buried 30-feet at a minimum below the surface of Wainscott Beach – where the project is to make landfall — other conditions will limit construction periods to off-peak seasons to ensure construction-related impacts are minimized.
