Transcript of NYPA Mission video:

The New York Power Authority, the nation’s largest state-owned electric utility, is a nonprofit, public-benefit energy corporation serving the people of New York State.

The Power Authority provides lower-cost electricity to:

• government agencies;
• the state’s 51 municipal electric systems and rural cooperatives;
• job-producing industries and nonprofit organizations;
• investor-owned electric utilities within New York State;
• to the Long Island Power Authority;
• to power marketers;
• to the New York Independent System Operator;
• and to seven neighboring states, as required by federal regulations.

Power Authority projects are financed through the sale of bonds to private investors, with no use of taxpayer dollars or state credit.

The projects are operated, and the bonds retired, using revenues from operations.

The Power Authority was established in 1931 by Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New York State legislature to harness the hydroelectric potential of the St.Lawrence river.

Today, NYPA owns and operates 18 electric generating facilities and more than 14-hundred circuit miles of high-voltage electric transmission lines throughout New York State.

Most of the Power Authority’s largest power plants are hydroelectric:

• the 800-megawatt St.Lawrence-FDR Power Project began operation in 1958;
• the Niagara Power Project, NYPA’s largest generating facility, at 24-hundred megawatts, began service in 1961;
• the Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped-Storage Power Project began operating in 1973. Located in Schoharie County, in the northern Catskills, Blenheim-Gilboa can produce more than one-thousand megawatts of electricity during periods of peak consumer demand.

Admission-free Visitor Centers are popular project attractions at Niagara, St.Lawrence-FDR and Blenheim-Gilboa.

The Power Authority is investing more than $700-million in life-extension and modernization programs at these facilities. Niagara’s upgrade was completed in 2006. Work at Blenheim-Gilboa will continue through 2010, at St.Lawrence-FDR through 2013.

NYPA has also received new, fifty-year operating licenses for St.Lawrence-FDR and Niagara from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Innovative, open relicensing processes have brought economic and environmental benefits to communities surrounding both projects.

NYPA also owns and operates five small hydroelectric plants, three at reservoirs in Westchester, Ulster and Oneida counties and two on the Mohawk River north of Albany.

The Power Authority’s  885-megawatt Charles Poletti Power Project in Queens, New York City, is fueled by natural gas and oil. It began operation in 1977.

The 135-megawatt Richard M. Flynn Power Plant, in Holtsville, Long Island, in service since 1994, burns natural gas and low-sulfur oil using combined-cycle technology. Hot gases normally lost in generating electricity are used to produce steam to drive a second turbine-generator, significantly boosting the plant’s efficiency.

In 2001, the Power Authority installed small, clean power plants fueled by natural gas at six sites in New York City and another on Long Island.

These units address New York’s ever-growing demand for energy.

Together, they can generate about 460-megawatts of electricity, equivalent to the capacity of a medium-sized power plant.

The Power Authority also owns and operates a 500-megawatt combined-cycle power plant adjacent to its Poletti Project in Queens. Thanks to the latest, most-sophisticated clean-air and combined-cycle technology, this facility, which began commercial operation in 2005, is one of the cleanest and most-efficient power plants in New York City’s history. It is fueled by natural gas with low-sulfur oil as a backup.

NYPA’s  transmission network criss-crosses New York State from Niagara to the west, Massena to the north, and south to Long Island.

The hub of that network is in Marcy, near Utica at the Power Authority’s Frederick R. Clark Energy Center, also home to NYPA’s Energy Control Center, where Authority electricity is dispatched to customers via the statewide energy grid.

NYPA’s corporate staff is located at headquarters in Albany and at offices in White Plains, Westchester County.

The Power Authority plays a key role in New York State’s aggressive economic development efforts…which has helped protect or create jobs at hundreds of businesses and not-for-profit organizations.

Overall, NYPA’s lower-cost electricity helps keep more than 400-thousand New Yorkers working.

The Power Authority has also invested more than $1-billion in energy-efficiency improvements at public facilities across New York State and in clean new power sources, initiatives that reduce air pollution, reduce reliance on imported oil and save tax dollars by cutting energy use.

Improvements include new, high-tech lighting, motors and  heating and air-conditioning equipment.

NYPA fuel cells produce virtually pollution-free electricity…through a chemical reaction rather than combustion…while solving major power supply problems for public customers. The fuel cells use natural gas or gases produced in sewage treatment.

Compact, highly-efficient  microturbines, installed by the Power Authority, generate clean power through the continuous high-pressure combination of such fuels.

NYPA solar panel installations tap the unlimited energy of the sun.

The microturbines and solar panels also supplement the power supplies of some Authority and other governmental customers.

The Power Authority has replaced outdated, polluting coal-fired furnaces at public schools and provided more than 185-thousand super energy-efficient refrigerators for public housing.

It is also exploring the use of biomass, wood and other organic materials, landfill gases and gasified coal as possible new energy sources.

NYPA’s energy services initiatives save taxpayers $92-million and 1.5-million barrels of foreign oil each year through reduced energy and maintenance costs.

The Power Authority practices what it preaches, saving energy at its own facilities, including a major, $3.5-million energy-efficiency program at its office building in White Plains, where energy use has already been cut by more than 50 percent.

The building has been recognized by the U.S. Green Building Council for leadership in energy and environmental design for its energy efficiency, use of renewable resources, reduced water consumption and enhanced indoor air quality.

It’s the first existing building in New York State to earn the Council’s highly-prized Gold certification.

Already the nation’s largest supplier of electricity for mass transit, the Power Authority has stepped up its efforts to promote greater use of cars, buses, trucks and other vehicles that run on electricity.

NYPA has put more than  800 clean electric and hybrid-electric vehicles on the road, in its own fleet and those of others, helping to clean the air and cut dependence on imported oil.

Through these and other efforts, the Power Authority is demonstrating its leadership in environmental protection.

The Power Authority is also pioneering research on improving the reliability and efficiency of the high-voltage electric transmission system.

At its Marcy substation the Authority has installed the world’s most advanced device for controlling the flow of electricity on transmission  lines.

The convertible static compensator permits more power to be carried on existing lines, reducing the need to build new ones, and giving consumers greater access to more economical electricity.

As New York State’s electricity industry continues its transition to deregulation and competition, the New York Power Authority remains committed to providing safe, clean, inexpensive and reliable electricity to businesses and residential consumers…throughout the Empire State.