New Montauk Substation On Shore Road

PSEG has started clearing the site where a new power substation will be constructed on Shore Road in Montauk. Once the facility is completed on the over one-acre site, the outdated substation now on Industrial Road, abutting Fort Pond, will be retired, with that site being cleaned up and converted to public use.

Shore Road connects Second House Road and Industrial Road to Navy Road on the other side of the Long Island Rail Road tracks.

The project is not covered by East Hampton’s normal site-plan review process, town attorney John Jilnicki said last week. Instead, the approvals for the project were obtained from the state’s Public Service Committee, which considers local needs when issuing approvals.

The site is considered dead because to its immediate north is the newly constructed and now operational battery storage facility. Privately owned by NextEra Energy, that facility harvests power when usage is below peak, then releases it back into the system when demand is high.

The new substation will be well screened, according to renderings PSEG has posted online, and is lower in height than the substation it is replacing. “The construction of a new substation on Second House Road and the reconfiguring of distribution circuits will directly benefit the local community by significantly increasing reliability and power quality. This work will reduce the risk of prolonged service disruptions, especially during heat waves and storms like Superstorm Sandy,” the utility company stated in a previous press release.

Work on the new substation is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

t.e@indyeastend.com