Community ·
Changes to generator testing at SEC1, and why
After complaints from neighbors about diesel fumes, monthly tests move to Tuesday mornings, run on half the sets at a time, and every set now has emissions controls.
Over the last two summers, and above all this one, people who live west of SEC1 have told us that our generators were filling their homes and yards with diesel fumes. They were right, and we are sorry.
Some of those runs were monthly tests, scheduled at times that suited our staff and run on all ten sets at once. Others were runs we agreed to make when the grid operator asked large users to come off the grid during heat waves. That program paid us. It cost our neighbors, who were already shutting their windows against the heat. And on June 24, during a utility outage, our generators ran for four and a half hours and one of them caught fire.
From October, this is what changes at SEC1:
- Monthly tests move to the second Tuesday of each month, 10:00 to 11:00, and run on five sets at a time for 30 minutes each.
- Tests stop early if the wind is toward the houses at more than 10 mph, and do not run on air quality alert days.
- We have withdrawn SEC1 from heat-wave demand response. NWK1, which has no homes downwind, still takes part.
- Every set at SEC1 now has selective catalytic reduction and a particulate filter. The stacks on sets 7 to 10, nearest the houses, will be raised by 12 feet this winter.
We have hired Lorraine Abate as our director of community and sustainability, and she will run twice-yearly meetings for neighbors at SEC1. The neighbors’ line, +1 201 016 2788, is answered at any hour.
Cordgrass Data · Secaucus, New Jersey · September 30, 2025