Executive Speeches

Excerpts from remarks of Timothy S. Carey, president and chief executive officer of the New York Power Authority, marking completion of a Power Authority energy efficiency project at the Albany School District’s Academy Building, Albany, New York.

January 11, 2007

I am pleased to be here for this very significant occasion in this truly historic building.

The New York Power Authority has completed energy efficiency projects at more than 2,400 public facilities throughout the state.  But not many of them can claim to be more than 190 years old or to date to the administration of James Madison.  So the work we’ve done here at the Academy Building is particularly meaningful to us.

This is also the first energy efficiency project—anywhere in New York State—to be completed under the Power to Schools program created by state law enacted in 2004.

The program authorizes the Power Authority to help all public and private schools in the state carry out energy efficiency projects and make use of clean energy technologies such as solar photovoltaic units and fuel cells. It also allows us to help the schools purchase economical electricity in the competitive state markets.

It is fitting that the first tangible benefits of a program conceived in Albany have been realized in a building whose occupants contribute so much to the citizens—and especially the schoolchildren—of this city.

Today we mark the completion of a project that will save energy and money, protect the environment and reduce dependence on foreign oil.  I thank the Albany School District and the State Education Department for the cooperation that was essential to our success.  We look forward to continuing these cooperative relationships as Power to Schools moves forward.

Here at the Academy Building, we’ve undertaken two major improvements.

We’ve replaced the previous inefficient steam boiler plant, which dated to 1985, with two new boilers.  This will increase average seasonal efficiency by about 30 percent.

We’ve also provided a new temperature control system, with night setback capability, that should significantly reduce the energy waste that has occurred on winter nights and weekends.

Next, we’ll move on to Washington Avenue for a major project at Albany High School.

Highlights will include replacement of the existing chillers, chill water pumps and cooling tower with more-efficient versions; addition of night-setback capability to the building’s heating control system; and replacement of the current supplemental electric baseboard heating with hot water baseboard heating.

Overall, the Power Authority is investing a total of more than $2.3 million at the two Albany sites.  Together, these projects will save the School District—and the taxpayers—about $131,000 annually.  They will—each year— avoid the burning of more than 1,700 barrels of oil and the emission of more than 520 tons of greenhouse gases. 

As with most of our energy efficiency projects, the Authority is providing the up-front funding and overseeing all aspects of implementation.  We’ll recover our costs by sharing in the savings on energy bills, after which the district will keep all the savings.

Although our current local projects mark the official start of Power to Schools, we’ve already carried out energy efficiency projects at close to 1,200 public school facilities throughout the state under various programs.  These include a number of initiatives we completed in Albany schools in 1998 and 2002 that now save the district’s taxpayers about $300,000 a year.

But, for all our past successes, we see Power to Schools as an important breakthrough for several reasons:

• It enables us to serve private schools for the first time.

• It also confirms our ability to carry out projects in public schools, including those—like the Albany schools—that don’t obtain electricity from us.

• It brings the Power Authority and the State Education Department into a partnership that will benefit the state’s taxpayers by lowering energy costs in our schools, while meeting other essential energy and environmental needs.

• And it gives us a new means to make school districts and individual schools aware of the opportunities available to them through this important partnership.

Just before the New Year, I sent letters to some 60 school superintendents in the Hudson Valley advising them of the program and inviting them to attend a Power to Schools forum in Fishkill on January 23.  Our next regional forum—probably early next month—will be in the Capital District, so please watch for the details.  Eventually, we’ll cover the entire state.

Energy efficiency is vital—at all times and in all places.  But it’s particularly important in our schools—where every dollar not spent on energy can be spent directly for purely educational purposes.

That is why the Power Authority is so committed to the Power to Schools program.  And why we are so pleased that the program has had such a positive beginning here in this building.