NEW YORK: NYPA Announces Clean Commute Program—The Power Authority has joined forces with Ford Motor Company to launch the NYPA/TH!NK Clean Commute Program, the nation's largest electric-vehicle (EV) station-car demonstration, featuring Ford's TH!NK city. The project, announced at an Oct. 17 news conference in Grand Central Terminal, is designed to reduce air pollution and traffic congestion as well as promote national energy independence. Ford will lease 100 TH!NK city EVs to Metropolitan Transportation Authority commuters at eight train stations—at Brewster North in Putnam County, Chappaqua and White Plains in Westchester County, Hicksville in Nassau County, Huntington in Suffolk County, Kew Gardens and Little Neck in Queens County, and Nanuet in Rockland County—for $199 a month. At the stations, participants will receive prime parking spots fitted with electrical hookups that will supply complimentary electricity to power their vehicles. They will also get monthly TransitCheks and home charging stations. For more information, call 1-800-252-4221 or visit websites www.nypa.gov/ev or www.thinkmobility.com.

EASTCHESTER: First Municipal Use in State for All-Electric Car— The Town of Eastchester and NYPA are scheduled to announce on Oct. 23 that they are teaming up to provide New York's first public-fleet use of Ford's TH!NK city vehicle—the first commercially available car designed from the ground up as all electric. "The zero-emission, low-maintenance TH!NK city brings together the tax-saving benefit of lower operating costs with the environmental benefit of cleaner air," said Eastchester Town Supervisor Jim Cavanaugh. "Coming just one week after Governor Pataki introduced the NYPA/TH!NK Clean Commute on Oct. 17, Eastchester and NYPA will show the versatility of the all-electric car with this municipal use," said NYPA Chairman Joseph Seymour. The town currently uses an electric-assist bike from NYPA for police patrols and will use the TH!NK city in its parking enforcement program.

ROME, N.Y.: Low-Cost Power to Protect Oneida Jobs—Gov. George E. Pataki has announced that the Griffiss Business and Technology Park will receive 2,000 kilowatts of low-cost Power Authority electricity to help protect 1,100 private-sector jobs in Oneida County. The allocation, through NYPA's Economic Development Power program, will supplement other state efforts to strengthen and revitalize Griffiss, where the Governor launched a $25.8 million modernization plan last November. "This low-cost power will benefit the Oneida County economy by keeping the businesses located at Griffiss strong and competitive," he said. State Senators Nancy Larraine Hoffmann and Ray Meier applauded the allocation, with Meier saying, "In this time of economic uncertainty, it is important that we remain focused and work harder than ever to maintain the economic success we have achieved over the past few years." The Rome research site, a provider of cutting-edge technology for the Air Force, has several hundred million dollars in contracts with the state’s companies and universities.

SYRACUSE: NYPA Chairman Proposes Power-Supply Strategy— Power Authority Chairman Joseph Seymour has called for a three-part strategy to ensure that the state has enough electricity to meet growing needs. "We must use energy more efficiently," Seymour said at the annual meeting of Multiple Intervenors, an organization of large commercial and industrial energy users with facilities in New York State, on Oct. 11. "We must strengthen our transmission system. And we must build new, environmentally clean power plants as quickly as possible." Citing the Power Authority's role in each area, Seymour said NYPA is investing more than $100 million this year in energy-efficiency programs and clean, new energy sources. He also noted that the Authority is boosting statewide transmission capacity, without construction of new lines, by installing the world's most advanced transmission control device at its Marcy Substation, near Utica. In a successful effort to avert power shortages this summer, Seymour said NYPA installed 10 small, clean gas-turbine generators in New York City and another on Long Island. The new generators provided "an unanticipated, but very real, benefit," he said, when transmission of power into the city and the output of larger power plants were cut as a precaution following last month's terrorist attack.

CHICAGO: NYPA Receives Award From R&D Magazine—R&D Magazine has selected a device pioneered by the Power Authority as one of the year's most technologically significant new products. NYPA, along with its partners, EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute) and Iris Power Engineering, received a 2001 R&D Award on Oct. 4 for developing and testing HydroTractm, used to detect equipment problems in hydroelectric generators. The device is a cost-effective on-line monitoring system for detecting the first signs of equipment failure. It continuously feeds critical data to plant operators, allowing more timely and effective maintenance and helping to avoid costly in-service machine breakdowns. NYPA played a significant role in creating the concept and developing a prototype, which was field tested at Power Authority facilities. The Authority previously received two other R&D 100 Awards in the annual competition, in 1995, for its work in developing equipment that boosts efficiency and productivity at electric utility substations.

NEW YORK: Battery Park City To Get Low-Cost NYPA Power— Gov. George E. Pataki has announced that the Hugh L. Carey Battery Park City Authority (BPCA), which operates the housing, office and retail complex adjacent to the destroyed World Trade Center, will receive low-cost NYPA power as part of moves to aid recovery efforts. The BPCA will receive the electricity for the many public spaces and parks in the Battery Park City area, with savings of nearly 25 percent on its electricity bills. The agency uses about 375 kilowatts in public places at any given time. Under a separate action previously announced by the Governor, the Power Authority will redirect the 80 megawatts of electricity formerly provided to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for the World Trade Center to local businesses affected by the World Trade Center attack.

In the Community: The Power Authority is donating almost $37,000 to providers of emergency services in the areas near its St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt Power Project, Massena. Contributions this year are being made to 40 local organizations, including volunteer fire departments, rescue squads, the American Red Cross and Massena Memorial Hospital....NYPA President Eugene Zeltmann presented a Toyota RAV4 electric vehicle to Hostos Community College for use in student recruitment and at public events, the Bronx, Oct. 16….More than 4,200 people attended the second annual Sc'ary County Harvest Festival, a salute to Schoharie County's agricultural heritage, at the Blenheim-Gilboa Power Project visitors center, North Blenheim, Oct. 13….The Power Authority provided an electric vehicle and an information booth at the Learning Sustainability: Achieving Environmental, Social and Economic Well-being regional community forum, held in conjunction with the Green Gold 2001 Expo at the Buffalo Convention Center, Oct. 11….The visitors center at the St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt Power Project is closed to visitors except members of groups making advance reservations, Massena. Call Bill Siddon at 315-764-0226, extension 304, to make a reservation. The admission-free center will reopen to the general public next spring.