Lessons From Where The Lights Stayed On During Sandy

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It will likely take several days and possibly weeks before a small army of utility workers finish restoring electric service for customers without power across large swaths of New England and the Mid-Atlantic region, including those still in the dark in the Big Apple.

While the short term focus should remain on restoring power where it was lost, the long-term strategy for avoiding future train wrecks like those that resulted from Hurricane Sandy begins not where electric power was lost but where it wasn't.

Transforming today's unambiguously anemic electric power grid into an electric power grid strong enough to survive the slings and arrows of extreme weather begins by understanding where and why the lights stayed on in New York City.

We all know where the the lights went out. But what about where they stayed on?

That scenario was and still is on full display in Co-op City.

Located on 330 acres in the Baychester section of the Bronx in northeast New York City, Co-Op City is one of the largest housing cooperatives in the world and the largest residential development in the United States. Indeed, if Co-op City were a separate municipality, it would rank as the 10th largest "city" in New York State.  The so-called "city within a city" boasts more than 14,000 apartment units, 35 high rise buildings, seven clusters of townhouses, eight parking garages, three shopping centers, a high school, two middle schools and three grade schools.

It also boasts a 40 megawatt combined heat and power (CHP) plant. CHP, also known as cogeneration, refers to the simultaneous production of electricity and useful thermal energy (heating and/or cooling) from a single source of energy. Unlike central power generation, CHP, a type of clean distributed generation, is sited behind the electric utility meter at or near the point of consumption.

"We decided to invest in an onsite cogeneration plant because we wanted to save money by producing our own electricity and capturing the waste heat to provide our residents with hot water and space cooling," said Herb Freedman, a principal of Marion Real Estate, Inc., which manages Co-op City for the Riverbay Corporation. "We have certainly saved money, but we are also really happy to provide our residents with the added benefit of independence from the power grid."

The Riverbay Corporation described its cogeneration plant, which provides the entire residential and auxiliary electric load, in a recent filing with the New York State Public Service Commission challenging Con Edison's treatment of CHP under existing demand response capacity programs:

In March of 2011, [Co-Op City] certified its cogeneration facility as a QF with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The newly existing Cogeneration Plant is a nominal 40 MW combined cycle plant, consisting of two dual fuel Siemens SGT-400 Gas Turbines with a nominal rating of 12.9 MW; two once through steam generators; a dual fuel 150,000 pph Auxiliary Boiler; and a 15 MW steam turbine.

Each unit can operate alone or in conjunction with other units. The combination of one Combustion Turbine and the Steam turbine are required for supplying Coop City's load. All units are connected through a common electric system so that production can either match Coop City's load, thereby displacing the need for Con Ed to supply this power . . . Excess electrical power generated by Coop City's power plant may be exported to Con Ed's grid . . .

Co-op City's cogeneration plant kept the lights on for its more than 60,000 residents during and after Hurricane Sandy's gale force winds and storm surge. It provides a point of departure for how best to prevent the next Hurricane Sandy from becoming a catastrophe.

“Hurricane Sandy hit Co-op City about as hard as it hit most anywhere else in New York City, but everybody in Co-op City had power before, during and after the storm, ” said Freedman.
