WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - The New York Power Authority (NYPA) invested about $110 million in energy efficiency and clean energy projects during 2006, breaking the Authority’s previous one-year record of $103.8 million, set in 2001.
NYPA set the new record in a year in which it also passed the $1 billion mark for total investments in energy efficiency and clean energy initiatives since the late 1980s.
“These two milestones demonstrate the Power Authority’s firm commitment to ensuring a reliable power supply while improving the environment and cutting our dangerous dependence on foreign oil,” said Timothy S. Carey, NYPA president and chief executive officer. “This has been a banner year for us in these areas, and we intend to build on the solid foundation that’s in place.”
Carey noted that NYPA’s annual investments in energy efficiency and clean technologies such as fuel cells and solar power more than doubled during Gov. George Pataki’s 12 years in office. He said Pataki’s initiatives, including an executive order establishing ambitious targets for energy savings and use of renewable energy in state facilities, had given impetus to the Authority’s efforts.
In 2006, the Power Authority directed funding to more than 250 projects at government buildings, schools, police stations, and other public facilities throughout the state. NYPA typically recovers its costs by sharing in the savings in energy bills that result from its initiatives, after which program participants retain all the savings.
The Authority, which uses no tax dollars, finances its energy efficiency and clean energy projects principally with commercial paper notes.
NYPA’s record total in 2006 reflects expenditures on projects that began during the year or were already in progress. Some of the projects were completed in 2006, while others will continue, requiring additional funding.
The largest 2006 investment, more than $19 million, was for a project to replace four boilers and about 25,000 feet of hot water distribution piping at New York City’s North River Wastewater Treatment Plant on the Hudson River in Upper Manhattan. The project, which began in 2005 and is scheduled for completion in 2007, is expected to ultimately cost about $37 million.
Elsewhere in 2006, the Power Authority invested funds for such energy efficiency projects as:
• New lighting, boilers or chillers at nearly 40 police stations in New York City and the city’s police headquarters.
• Numerous measures at the State University of New York (SUNY) College at Brockport’s dining hall, including the installation of more-efficient lighting, HVAC equipment, and building insulation, as well as upgrades to a computerized energy management system for the campus in Monroe County.
• Replacement of existing boilers with more-efficient units in several dormitories at the SUNY College at Canton in St. Lawrence County.
• New lighting, motors, insulation, and water-conserving equipment at public facilities in the city of Jamestown in Chautauqua County, as well as an upgrade of the city’s energy management system. Jamestown, a Power Authority municipal-system customer, is among the first to benefit from an Authority action last May that enabled the state’s 51 municipal electric systems and rural cooperatives to participate in NYPA’s energy efficiency and clean energy programs.
Among the clean energy highlights in 2006 was NYPA’s investment of funds toward development of a project in which landfill gas will be used to produce nearly 5 megawatts of electricity at Monroe County’s Mill Seat Landfill in Riga. The project is scheduled for completion next spring.
Other Power Authority clean energy investments in 2006 were directed at such projects as fuel cells completed during the year at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse and a Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) facility in Corona, Queens, and another to be installed at the Bronx Zoo. NYPA also provided funding for an innovative battery energy storage system awaiting the start of operation at the MTA-Long Island Bus depot in Garden City.
Publication date:01/08/2007
