The New York State Public Service Commission has granted final approval for Empire Offshore Wind’s petition to construct and operate the offshore and onshore transmission facilities for the Empire Wind 1 Offshore Wind Project. The approved phase includes construction work within Con Edison’s Gowanus substation property, covering excavation, installation of duct banks, cable pulling, site restoration, and associated decommissioning.
The project's transmission line extends approximately 17.5 miles from the boundary of New York State waters to a point of interconnection in Brooklyn, Kings County. Empire Wind 1 is an 816MW offshore wind project being developed by Equinor Wind US. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2026, with full operations beginning by the end of 2027.
The transmission system includes two 230-kilovolt (kV) high-voltage alternating current (HVAC) submarine export cables running approximately 15.1 nautical miles from New York State waters (3 nautical miles offshore) to a cable landfall in Brooklyn. From there, a 0.2-mile onshore cable route will connect to a substation, with two three-core 230-kV HVAC onshore export cables buried underground, either directly to the cable terminations or via transition vaults at the onshore substation.
An onshore substation at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal will increase the voltage to 345 kV for the onshore interconnection cables. Two 345-kV cable circuits, each containing three single-core HVAC onshore interconnection cables, will be buried underground, connecting the substation to the Gowanus 345-kV substation owned by Consolidated Edison Company of New York.
