Lower-Cost Power Authority Electricity to Help Create 25 Jobs in Delhi

Contact
Michael Saltzman
914-390-8181
michael.saltzman@nypa.gov

April 27, 2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WHITE PLAINS—Score one for a Delhi company planning to manufacture sports construction equipment like football goalposts, long-jump pits and foul poles, in connection with an allocation of lower-cost electricity from the New York Power Authority (NYPA) that will lead to 25 new jobs over the next year.

The Power Authority trustees Tuesday approved an allocation of 400 kilowatts to the Delaware County Electric Cooperative (kw), to help make possible an expansion by Sportsfield Specialties, Inc., a corporation formed in 1998 as a products marketing company.

“The allocation of lower cost power will help support Sportsfield’s relocation to a larger building in Delhi for a new manufacturing operation and expanded number of jobs,” said Louis P. Ciminelli, NYPA chairman. “We’re excited about the prospect of helping the company transition from a business that until now has been limited to marketing sports construction equipment produced by others.”

Sportsfield has moved into a newly-constructed 16,400-square-foot building attached to a 6,000-square-foot storage building on State Highway 10. It’s planning to spend a total of $1.5 million, including purchase of manufacturing and fabrication equipment, on the expansion.

The allocation of power will be drawn from a block of 108,000 kw provided for under an economic development program for the 51 municipal electric and rural cooperative systems in New York State whose full or partial electricity requirements are met by NYPA. The Delaware County Cooperative, which submitted an application for power on behalf of Sportsfield, is a full-service customer.

Half of the electricity under the economic development program is hydropower from the Power Authority’s Niagara Power Project, near Niagara Falls. That power is among the lowest cost in the state.

The remaining half is available from other economic power sources arranged by NYPA.

The allocation to the Delaware County Cooperative leaves more than 75,000 kw still available for the economic development program in the service areas of the municipal and cooperative systems. Under the program guidelines, the hydropower amount not designated for a specific company is sold on a withdrawable basis to the electric systems as a whole.

The New York Power Authority, the largest state-owned public power organization in the country, allocates lower cost electricity under several allocation programs, including Governor George E. Pataki’s Power for Jobs program. The combined total number of jobs linked to these programs is about 420,000 statewide.