Caithness Long Island can continue pursuing a plan to build a 600-megawatt power plant in Yaphank after the Brookhaven Town Board lifted restrictions on the project.

The board voted 6-0, with one abstention, to repeal a 2015 covenant that limited the types of power-producing equipment the Manhattan-based company can use to build Caithness II, a gas-fired plant that would be built alongside an existing Caithness plant that opened in 2009.

Caithness still must obtain approvals from the town planning board and permits from state agencies before the new plant can be built.

Caithness officials have said the plant would supply electricity to power grids statewide and serve as a backup to existing and planned solar and wind farms. The facility also would help reduce carbon dioxide emissions and save Long Island Power Authority ratepayers about $75 million a year, company officials said.

"We are pleased that the town board repealed the restrictive covenant related to the previously approved Caithness II power project, Caithness Long Island," president Ross D. Ain said in a statement. "We now look forward to consideration and approval of the site plan filed with the planning board for what will be the region’s cleanest, most fuel-efficient, and most water-conserving power plant."

Link to Caithness Energy US country profile