Powerbridge, LLC Adds Jeff Wood to Lead Hudson Transmission Project Financing

Jeffrey T. Wood, a former managing director at Societe Generale with extensive project finance experience, has joined PowerBridge, LLC of Fairfield, Connecticut, developer of the 660-MW Hudson Transmission project, an underwater electric transmission link between the PJM grid and New York City, and the Neptune underwater transmission line between New Jersey and Long Island that was completed in June, 2007. Wood will be responsible for leading the financing effort for the Hudson project, which is scheduled to begin construction in the fall of 2009.

While at Societe Generale, Wood was responsible serving as financial advisor and for arranging $600 million in non-recourse project financing for the Neptune transmission project, a 660-MW, 51-mile undersea transmission cable completed in June of 2007.

Full Text (PDF 48K)

NYPA Selects Proposal for Serving Electricity Requirements of Government Customers in New York City

The New York Power Authority (NYPA) Trustees Tuesday approved a proposal for ensuring continued economical, reliable electricity service for the Authority’s public customers in New York City, centering on the construction of a new transmission line from Ridgefield, New Jersey, to midtown Manhattan. The proposal provides for a link to electricity markets in a multistate area, with capacity to be supplied by an existing power plant in New Jersey.

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PJM CEO Underscores Key Role of Transmission

WASHINGTON, July 31– PJM President and CEO Terry Boston today testified before the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that transmission is the enabler of virtually all of the energy goals Congress is considering.

Providing solutions to achieve those goals, Boston said, “will require more transmission infrastructure whether it involves increasing renewable generation, using more nuclear power, shifting to clean coal technology with carbon sequestration or relying on more plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.”
The purpose of the committee hearing was to oversee the state of the nation’s transmission grid, as well as the implementation of the 2005 Energy Policy Act transmission provisions, including the provision for the designation of national interest electric transmission corridors.

Boston’s prepared testimony stated that to adopt some of the ambitious renewable energy and climate change goals that are being discussed will require a substantial investment in new transmission and new grid technology. He added that the electricity industry can deliver, as it has done in the past, but only if it can get beyond debate over yesterday’s issues and instead partner with the states, the federal government, consumers and industry to focus on truly deploying the 21st century grid.

“For a decade following the New York blackout of 1965, this nation and this industry came together and built transmission that made electric reliability in the U.S. the envy of the world from the mid-1970s through the mid-1990s,” Boston said. “To earn that status again, we must take control of our own destiny on energy adequacy and reliability. By working together with the states we can do it again.”

PJM Interconnection ensures the reliability of the high-voltage electric power system serving 51 million people in all or parts of Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. PJM coordinates and directs the operation of the region’s transmission grid, which includes 6,038 substations and 56,350 miles of transmission lines; administers a competitive wholesale electricity market; and plans regional transmission expansion improvements to maintain grid reliability and relieve congestion.

Complete version of Boston’s testimony to the Senate (PDF 516K).