NJ BPU approves wind turbine transmission line through Ocean City downbeach.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from downbeach.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Over the objections of Ocean City, state regulators approved plans Wednesday for a transmission line that would run through environmentally sensitive areas of the beach to connect an offshore wind energy farm to a land-based power grid.
Orsted, a Danish energy company, proposed running the line under Ocean City’s streets and bring the electricity onshore in Ocean City through a cable at the beach lots of 35th Street to connect the offshore wind turbines to the power grid at the former B.L. England Generating Station in Marmora.
But it needed the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) to approve easements and other permits related to what is called the Ocean Wind 1 project.
During Wednesday’s meeting, BPU members went into executive session to discuss the matter, among other unrelated projects. Upon returning, the state agency granted Orsted the approvals needed.
“The board finds that the property rights and consents are reasonable and necessary for the constructio