One of the world’s largest offshore wind developers, Denmark-based Ørsted, wants to bring 1,100 megawatts of electricity onshore from a wind farm in the Atlantic Ocean using a transmission line that would run through Ocean City, New Jersey.
That is not sitting well with some people in and around the small, but well-known Jersey Shore community, where many families across the Philadelphia region visit in the summer. Look no further than Kate Winslet’s detective from “Mare of Easttown” for proof of Ocean City’s popularity.
Still, it’s becoming increasingly likely that Ørsted’s Ocean Wind 1 project about 15-20 miles off Atlantic and Cape May counties will connect to the region’s power grid with an underground transmission line that comes onshore at an Ocean City beach. It would then run through the community to a decommissioned coal power plant in nearby Upper Township.
Ørsted has claimed in recent public filings that Ocean City’s local officials are ignoring the developer’s requests for permitting approvals, but New Jersey’s Board of Public Utilities can override municipalities and authorize a right-of-way for the transmission line.
“Ocean Wind requests that the Board (of Public Utilities) preempt and supersede Ocean City’s municipal consent with respect to any and all permits the Project must receive from the NJDEP, and conclude that the Project may obtain the necessary permits and approvals from the NJDEP,” lawyers for Ørsted wrote last month to the BPU. The state body is currently considering Ørsted’s proposal.
Continue reading at nbcphiladelphia.com.
