TRENTON – The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) heard oral arguments June 24 on the route of power cables that will transfer energy from the offshore Ocean Wind I farm to the state’s power grid at the decommissioned B.L. England generating stating in Upper Township.
The NJBPU was acting under a new 2021 statute that gives it final authority on the placement of such cables, authority that supersedes that of municipal governing bodies.
Ocean Wind I LLC petitioned the NJBPU after failing to reach an agreement with Ocean City for the placement of the transmission cables.
The proposed route would have the ocean cable drop 60 feet underground when it crosses the Ocean City beach at 34th Street. It would rise and traverse the city streets in an underground conduit similar to that used by other utilities and it would go back deep underground when it arrives at the bay crossing point for travel to Upper Township.
Arguing that this was a reasonable route, that connection points to the electric grid are limited in South Jersey, that discussions with Ocean City had gone on for three years, and that Ocean City’s true motive in prolonging the process of onshoring the cable is to continue resistance to the construction of the wind farm itself, Ocean Wind I LLC asked the NJBPU to override Ocean City’s elected officials and permit the proposed route for the cables.
Ocean City started its oral arguments by challenging the law that gives the NJBPU authority in this matter. City attorney Dorothy McCrosson reminded the board that the law had not yet been tested in the courts, perhaps indicating the city’s response if it is overruled by the NJBPU.
McCrosson attacked Ocean Wind I LLC for violating Ocean City’s rights as a municipality in control of its own streets just because the route proposed was, she alleged, the least expensive one for the company. Ocean City argued for an alternative path to the Upper Township power plant through Great Egg Harbor Bay.
The NJBPU took no action at the meeting, noting that action on the petition would be “at a later date to be determined.”
