Shoreham battery project faces $27 million grid connection cost blow
A $27 million grid-connection charge could upend Shoreham’s 50-megawatt battery plan and force Key Capture Energy to rethink an $86 million project.
A potential $27 million grid-connection charge could push Key Capture Energy’s Shoreham battery project beyond its roughly $86 million budget and force a rethink of whether the Suffolk County facility still makes financial sense. The added cost lands on a project that local officials and energy planners have treated as part of Long Island’s reliability buildout, not as a speculative add-on.
Long Island Power Authority approved the Shoreham contract on Dec. 18, 2024, along with a separate 79-megawatt battery project in Hauppauge. The Shoreham deal called for a 20-year contract with Key Capture Energy for a 50-megawatt, 200-megawatt-hour system using lithium-iron-phosphate technology and enhanced fire-safety features. LIPA said both Suffolk County projects came from 78 proposals submitted under its 2021 bulk-storage request for proposals.
The Shoreham facility is planned for a portion of the former Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant property, a site that remains politically sensitive in Brookhaven because of its history and ownership. The nuclear station was decommissioned in 1994. Key Capture Energy has said the battery project, known as KCE NY 31, would connect to the existing Shoreham Substation and had been expected to be completed by 2028.
The project has also been through the local civic process. In May 2024, Key Capture representatives discussed the Shoreham proposal with the Wading River Civic Association, part of the broader push to explain how a battery installation on LIPA-owned land could strengthen the grid. The new connection estimate now threatens to turn that planning into a financial question: whether the developer can absorb the charge, revise the deal or delay construction.
Brookhaven Town Supervisor Dan Panico has said the town would not approve additional battery projects until New York State finalizes new fire-safety standards, underscoring how battery storage in Suffolk County is still running into regulatory and political headwinds even after state and utility approval in principle. If the connection bill holds at $27 million, the pressure will fall hardest on Key Capture Energy’s bottom line, while residents and local officials are left waiting to see whether Shoreham’s promised storage capacity ever reaches the grid.
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