NYPA Astoria Project, Astoria, New York

Dr. Robert Peltier, PE

Pages: 1 2 3 4

New plant for old

The $650 million NYPA Astoria Project, which began commercial operation last New Year's Eve, sits on a 7-acre parcel in the Astoria neighborhood of the borough of Queens, adjacent to NYPA's 30-year-old, 885-MW gas-fired Charles Poletti Power Plant. NYPA purchased the Poletti plant—then known as Astoria 6—from Con Edison in 1974 while it was still under construction. The plant came on-line in 1977, and three years later it was retrofitted so it could burn gas as well as oil, its design fuel. (Don't confuse NYPA Astoria with another 500-MW combined-cycle plant being built in Queens by Astoria Energy LLC; Phase I of that project went commercial on May 21 of this year.)

NYPA Astoria's site, overlooking the East River, has been used principally for power generation since 1905. With access to an existing natural gas pipeline and transmission lines, and on-site liquid fuel tanks, it is an ideal spot to put another plant. The adjacent Poletti plant is scheduled to be shut down not later than 2010. Setting an actual close date won't happen until NYISO determines that closing Poletti's doors would not cause the capacity of New York City's other plants to violate the aforementioned "80% rule" and thus put reliability at risk.

NYPA Astoria's project team. Source: New York Power Authority

Project overview

The Astoria project team (see table)—consisting of NYPA, Skanska USA Civil Inc. (through its subsidiary Slattery Skanska), New York–based DMJM Harris, and General Electric/Sargent & Lundy—was responsible for the overall permitting, design, procurement, and construction of the plant. A key task was the erection of a 97,000-square-foot, two-story main building—topped by twin 240-foot-tall stacks (Figure 2)—to house the power block.