NYPA says Entergy Indian Point power contract to end in 2013

* NYPA buys 200 MW from Indian Point from 2009-2013
* Entergy seeks new licenses for reactors beyond 2013, 2015
* NY Governor wants Indian Point shut

By Scott DiSavino
Sept 12 (Reuters) - The New York Power Authority (NYPA), a
state-owned electric company, said Wednesday a contract to buy
200 megawatts (MW) for its government customers in New York City
from the state's giant Indian Point nuclear power plant will
expire in September 2013.
Entergy Corp, one of the biggest nuclear power
operator in the United States, won a request for proposal to
sell the 200 MW from its 2,063-MW Indian Point (100 MW from the
1,022-MW Unit 2 and 100 MW from the 1,040-MW Unit 3) from 2009
until 2013.
Indian Point is located about 40 miles (64 km) north of
Manhattan along the Hudson River in Buchanan in Westchester
County.
A spokesman for Indian Point said the company does not
comment on the plant's power purchase agreements but noted the
two reactors provide about a quarter of the electricity used in
New York City and Westchester County.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo wants Indian Point shut, in
part because it is located in the New York metropolitan area,
home to some 19 million people, where he has said even the most
unlikely possibility of an accident is too much.
New Orleans-based Entergy meanwhile says the plant is safe
and wants to keep its two reactors running for another 20 years
after their licenses expire in 2013 and 2015.
The reason NYPA's contract to buy power from Entergy ends in
September 2013 is that is when Unit 2's operating license
expires.
Entergy however can continue to operate the reactors so long
as the federal license renewal process is ongoing. The parties
involved in the Indian Point license renewal, which started in
2007, have said they expect the process to continue for at least
a few more years.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) planned to
start hearings on the numerous contentions against the renewal
of Indian Point in October 2012.
NYPA, meanwhile, said it will not extend the contract with
Indian Point, and that if the agreement were to expire today, it
would not need to renew it because there were excess supplies of
low-cost power in the marketplace.
NYPA said its New York City government customers use about
1,900 MW of power to run the city's subways, government offices,
hospitals and schools, among other things.

POWER FOR THE CITY
In addition to the Entergy contract, NYPA gets power for New
York City from its 500-MW combined-cycle, natural gas-fired
plant at the former Poletti site in Astoria, Queens, and a power
purchase contract with the 550-MW natural-gas-fired Astoria
Energy 2 site, also in Astoria.
The Power Authority also gets some power for the city from
its 1,160-MW Blenheim Gilboa pumped storage hydro plant, its
small hydro power facilities in the state, and short-term market
purchases. One megawatt can power about 1,000 homes.
NYPA said if it needs more power for its New York City
government customers in the future, it would work with those
customers to determine how to source that power.
Those sources could include generators in the giant PJM
power grid, which runs from New Jersey to Illinois, when private
transmission company Hudson Transmission's new 660-MW power
cable under the Hudson River connects New York City to New
Jersey in 2013.
NYPA's latest contract to meet the needs of its New York
City government customers expires in 2017. The parties have
renegotiated provisions of past agreements various times since
the Power Authority started serving those customers in the
mid-1970s.