MASSENA: Alcoa, Power Authority Reach Agreement in Principle— The Power Authority has reached an agreement in principle with Alcoa, the North Country’s largest employer, linking the continued allocation of low-cost hydropower to hundreds of jobs and $600 million in capital improvements. Under the agreement, announced by Gov. Eliot Spitzer late last month, Alcoa will continue to purchase, for at least 30 years, 478 megawatts of low-cost hydropower generated at NYPA’s St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project. Alcoa was NYPA’s first power customer, and its two Massena aluminum smelters receive about 60 percent of the nearby hydro project’s output. The agreement, which would take effect when Alcoa’s current contract expires in 2013, would commit Alcoa to a total employment level of between 1,065 and a minimum of 900 jobs. As part of a flexible pricing plan, the agreement links the price for NYPA’s electricity to the price of aluminum. Additionally, Alcoa will fund a $10 million North Country Economic Development Fund, jointly administered by NYPA and Empire State Development to create jobs and capital investments in the surrounding seven-county region. The new contract must be approved by both NYPA’s Board of Trustees and Alcoa’s Board of Directors before it becomes final. Also, Alcoa has two years to complete engineering studies into the proposed modernization of its older Massena East facility, representing another condition to be met before the allocation agreement is realized.

AUBURN: NYPA Completes Major Energy Services Project— The Power Authority has completed a $3.9 million project here that incorporates a variety of energy-services techniques designed to save Auburn taxpayers $240,000 per year in electricity and building maintenance costs. Thirteen city facilities have received upgrades and improvements that carry both environmental and economic benefits. Annual energy savings are expected to reach 1.4 million kilowatt-hours, enough to serve about 120 homes. Using less natural gas and heating oil will save the city an additional $33,500 a year. A highlight of the NYPA-sponsored project is a new geothermal system that captures the ambient ground temperature in the earth to heat and cool City Hall and Auburn’s police and fire headquarters. Other buildings received computerized energy management systems that help monitor and control energy costs. Through this project, NYPA also installed energy-efficient lighting at numerous sites and high-efficiency pumps for the city’s water treatment facilities. As it has done at public facilities across New York State, NYPA helped finance Auburn’s energy services project and will be reimbursed through the municipality’s annual savings.

WHITE PLAINS: Investment Strengthens NYPA Security —Strengthening the cyber security of NYPA’s statewide power generation and high-voltage transmission systems is the goal of a $7 million investment authorized by Power Authority trustees in December. The move responds to new requirements of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to help safeguard the nation’s electric power supply system against computer-to-computer attacks. Eight new standards require utilities to establish plans and controls to safeguard physical and electronic access to systems, and to train staff on security matters, including reporting security incidents and recovering information. The new standards are expected to be fully met by mid-2009. NYPA has 18 generating facilities around the state, and about 1,400 circuit miles of high-voltage transmission lines.

WHITE PLAINS: NYPA Boosts Support for EPRI Research— Several environmental research programs of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) will receive support from the Power Authority under a two-year agreement approved in December by NYPA trustees. The Authority will take part in EPRI programs involving regulatory response to greenhouse gas control, the relationship between air quality and health, environmental issues in transmission line maintenance and occupational health and safety. The latter category supports NYPA’s strategic objective to be an industry leader in safety performance.

LEWISTON: Improvement Fund Created for Water Flow— The Power Authority has created a $19 million capital improvement fund for the Niagara Falls Water Board as part of a settlement agreement related to NYPA’s receipt of a new 50-year federal license for the Niagara Power Project. The Water Board will manage and administer the fund, which will be used for capital improvements to minimize groundwater flow into the Falls Street Tunnel. The improvements to the tunnel in the area of the NYPA conduits that carry water to the Niagara project will include construction shafts, sediment removal, repair to an existing seven-foot diameter concrete pipe, slip-lined rock-tunnel lining and other measures. The fund will also cover related maintenance and repair costs incurred by the Water Board over the term of the power project license. The fund is part of more than $1 billion in financial support and other benefits that NYPA will provide in Western New York over the term of the Niagara project’s new license under various settlement agreements.

MASSENA: Progress Seen in Transfer of 600 Acres— NYPA is making progress in its efforts to convey almost 600 acres of surplus lands from its St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project to local municipalities and adjacent private property owners in several North Country communities. The Power Authority is returning these shoreline-area properties as part of a comprehensive settlement agreement reached during the relicensing of the hydroelectric project here. Nearly 400 acres have been conveyed. Under terms of the agreement with the St. Lawrence Local Government Task Force, NYPA agreed to transfer the surplus lands. Lands were transferred to the municipalities at no cost. Residents can purchase parcels adjoining their properties for fair market value. NYPA is working on the land conveyances with the task force, which consists of municipalities and school districts with properties within the original boundary of the St. Lawrence-FDR project. NYPA has offered almost all 600 acres of surplus lands to the towns of Massena, Louisville, Waddington and Lisbon; the Village of Waddington; and adjoining private landowners in those municipalities. Most of the remaining 221 acres slated for the adjoining private landowners have been offered to them. The Power Authority has committed to reinvest the proceeds from the sale of the parcels to the adjoining landowners in specific public works or economic support measures requested by the municipalities.