Rise Light & Power, a wholly owned subsidiary of LS Power, is planning for a new renewable energy hub to deliver New Jersey’s offshore wind resource to the state’s electric grid. Rise is proposing to build the Outerbridge Renewable Connector to streamline the delivery of renewable offshore wind energy to New Jersey homes and businesses.
After months of consultations with elected leaders, policymakers, offshore wind developers, environmental advocates, labor, business, fishing interests and other stakeholders, Rise submitted the Outerbridge Renewable Connector plan to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) and PJM Interconnection.
Rise recently completed acquisition of the site of the former E.H. Werner Power Station in South Amboy, N.J. It plans to redevelop the site as a renewable energy hub serving as a central interconnection point for offshore wind farms to deliver clean energy to the New Jersey electric grid. With Rise’s ongoing remediation efforts, the project will also lead to the elimination of a once-contaminated brownfield site dating back to the 1930s.
Rise is currently advancing the clean energy transformation of New York City’s largest power plant, the Ravenswood Generating Station, to host several green infrastructure projects, including battery storage and renewable transmission solutions.
“Rise Light & Power is committed to helping New Jersey achieve its ambitious clean energy goals,” says Clint Plummer, CEO of Rise Light & Power. “The state’s bold vision calls for a responsible, affordable solution to delivering offshore wind energy to the state electric grid. Outerbridge solves the challenge of finding appropriate and acceptable cable landing sites by using existing infrastructure that avoids siting transmission lines in sensitive areas like residential neighborhoods and recreational beaches.”
The Outerbridge proposal enables offshore wind projects to avoid bringing high-voltage power cables ashore at New Jersey’s beaches or other sensitive areas. Instead, Rise proposes transforming an industrial waterfront site, formerly home to the Jersey Central Power & Light Company’s E.H. Werner power station, into a gateway for bringing power from offshore wind farms into New Jersey.
The 26-acre, industrially zoned site was retired as a fossil-fueled power plant in 2015. The site on Raritan Bay features an existing substation and switchyard, rail and highway access, a pier with expansion potential and unobstructed access to the Atlantic Ocean with 24 acres of submerged lands.
Once offshore wind energy is delivered to the new clean energy hub at South Amboy, Outerbridge would function as a giant extension cord, delivering clean energy to the local power grid through upgraded grid infrastructure on the site and to the Deans Substation through buried cables along an existing railroad right of way. The power cables will be entirely underground. A proposed battery energy-storage system offers the opportunity for further reliability to the grid.
