NYPA TRUSTEES APPROVE NEW AGREEMENT WITH ALCOA

For Immediate Release: 12/17/15

Contact: 
Steve Gosset | Steve.Gosset@nypa.gov | (914) 390-8192

WHITE PLAINS -  The New York Power Authority Board of Trustees today approved an agreement with Alcoa that averts wide-scale layoffs at the aluminum manufacturer’s Massena West smelter.

The contract, which revises a 2014 deal with Alcoa, also includes up to $40 million in financial penalties should the company breach its commitment to maintain at least 600 jobs, or close the plant before the contract expires March 31, 2019.

Alcoa, the largest private sector employer north of Syracuse, said on Nov. 2 it would permanently shut its Massena East plant and curtail operations at its Massena West smelter, which would have thrown 487 people out of work by early next year.

Recognizing the damage such a move would inflict on the North Country economy, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) negotiated a deal, announced two days before Thanksgiving, which includes $30 million in low-cost electricity from NYPA and $43.6  million in subsidies for operational and capital expenses from Empire State Development.

Alcoa already receives some of the lowest-cost electricity in the nation from NYPA to power its Massena operations. The price Alcoa pays for power will now be indexed to the market price for aluminum. If aluminum prices rebound from their historic lows, Alcoa will pay more for the NYPA power generated from the St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project in Massena.

About NYPA
NYPA is the nation's largest state public power organization, through the operation of its 16 generating facilities and more than 1,400 circuit-miles of transmission lines. NYPA uses no tax money or state credit. It finances its operations through the sale of bonds and revenues earned in large part through sales of electricity. More than 70 percent of the electricity NYPA produces is clean renewable hydropower. Follow @NYPAenergy on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, WordPress, YouTube, and LinkedIn.