Opinion ID: 4552011
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Submarine Cables

Text: The Authority owns and operates the Y-49 Cable System, a power transmission cable system that spans Long Island Sound. The cable system runs from the Sprain Brook Substation in Westchester 2 Except as otherwise noted, these facts are not in dispute. 5 County, which Consolidated Edison (“Con Edison”) operates, to the East Garden City Substation in Nassau County, which the Long Island Power Authority operates. There are four submarine cables spanning Long Island Sound, with two self-contained fluid-filled (“SCFF”) pressurization plants located at the two ends of the cables. The four submarine cables are high-voltage transmission cables consisting of multiple layers, including the electrical conductor and a layer of “fluid-impregnated paper insulation.” Joint App’x 479. Additionally, a central duct in each cable is filled with dielectric fluid, which is a “hydrocarbon, petroleum-based oil” that “acts as a coolant and lubricant to the electrical components of the submerged cables.” Id. at 603–04. The four cables combined hold approximately 10,000 gallons of the dielectric fluid at any given time. The SCFF pressurization plants, meanwhile, are comprised of storage tanks holding reserve dielectric fluid, as well as equipment to 6 monitor and regulate the pressure in the submarine cables. The plants are required to keep a constant static pressure in the cables to ensure the cables function properly. To do that, the plants increase or decrease the volume of dielectric fluid stored in the cables. Because the maintenance of constant pressure requires differing amounts of fluid depending on, among other things, the temperature of the water surrounding the cables, the dielectric fluid regularly flows through the plants and cables.