State Will Help Wire 300 Gas Stations in Area for Backup Power

The state has identified more than 300 strategically located gas stations in Westchester and Rockland to be wired for generators so they can pump gas during natural disasters or blackouts.

Local station owners, as well as those in New York City and Long Island, have begun receiving letters from the state to inform that they must comply with the new law, which is aimed at avoiding the long lines, gas rationing and price gouging that ensued following Superstorm Sandy.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority will cover most, if not all, of the costs of the upgrades through grants. In all, more than 1,500 gas stations — or about half of all in the nine counties — have been identified for the $17 million federally funded program.

Stations that sell less than 75,000 gallons of gas per month are exempt. The full list of stations, including a map, is available athttp://nysandyhelp.ny.gov/fuel-ny.

Stations located within a half-mile of an exit on highway, such as the New York State Thruway or Interstate 287, or from a designated hurricane evacuation route must be wired with a transfer switch for an emergency generator by April 1, 2014. Stations that are part of a chain and located outside the critical areas have until 2015.

They would be eligible to receive up to $10,000 to install the transfer switch or as much as $13,000 if they add a permanent back-up generator.

Migdalia Rivera, co-owner of the Shell on Route 59 in Central Nyack, said her station lost power for more than two days after Sandy struck last October.

“We had maybe 15,000 gallons in the ground, if not more, that we couldn’t sell and there were obviously people that needed fuel,” Rivera said. “And then it caused so much chaos when got the lights back.”

At one point, she and her husband, Omar Isa, explored the idea about using a generator but the station’s electrical system wasn’t set up to power their four service islands and their convenience store. She estimated they lost about $30,000 in gas and store sales in the days following the storm.