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New York Power Authority

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The New York Power Authority (NYPA), is the largest state public power utility in the United States providing some of the lowest-cost electricity in the nation, operating 16 generating facilities and more than 1,400 circuit-miles of transmission lines. Its main administrative offices are in White Plains, New York

New York Power Authority
Company typeNew York state authority
IndustryPower generation
Founded1931; 93 years ago (1931)
FounderFranklin D. Roosevelt
Headquarters
White Plains
,
United States
Key people
Justin Driscoll – President and CEO
ProductsElectricity generation
OwnerState of New York
Websitenypa.gov

NYPA uses no state tax dollars and incurs no state debt, financing its projects principally through the sale of bonds. The bonds are repaid and the projects operated using revenues from operations.

State and federal regulations determine NYPA’s customer base, which includes large and small businesses, not-for-profit organizations, public power systems and government agencies. NYPA also sells electricity to private utilities for resale (without profit) to their customers, and to neighboring states[which?], under federal requirements. Approximately 70 percent of the electricity it produces is clean, renewable hydropower.

The New York Power Authority has been financially responsible for the New York State Canal Corporation since April 2016 and has owned it since January 1, 2017.[1]

Justin Driscoll has been the President and CEO since July 2023 and was previously acting President and CEO.[2]

Organization

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From 2011, the president and Chief Executive Officer was Gil C. Quiniones. The executive staff report to a seven-member board.[3] In 2017, it had operating expenses of $2.335 billion, an outstanding debt of $1.305 billion, and a staffing level of 2,327 people.[4] He resigned in 2021 to be CEO of Commonwealth Edison company in Illinois.[5][6]

Justin Driscoll was voted as acting president and CEO in 2022[5] and automatically became president and CEO due to the New York State Senate deciding to not hold a confirmation hearing.[2]

In 2024, Sandra Bleckman was hired as the New York Power Authority's Workforce Development Project Director

Operations

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Electric power produced from NYPA's facilities – in addition to being sold to large and small businesses, not-for-profit organizations, public power systems, government agencies, private utilities for resale (without profit) to their customers, and neighboring states, under federal requirements – is sold into the wholesale electricity market of New York State, which is administered by the NYISO. One of the larger direct sales customers of electric power is the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. NYPA also provides electrical engineering consulting services to the MTA when the MTA is planning for and building new power facilities.

Facilities

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Hydroelectric generation

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NYPA operates three large hydroelectric complexes: the 2,441-megawatt (MW) Niagara Power Project, on the Niagara River in Lewiston; the 800-MW St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt Power Project, on the St. Lawrence River in Massena; and the 1,160-MW Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project in the Catskill Mountain towns of North Blenheim and Gilboa.

NYPA also has four small hydro facilities with a net capability of 10-MW: the Ashokan Project in Ulster County, the Crescent Plant in Albany and Saratoga counties, the Gregory B. Jarvis Plant in Oneida County and the Vischer Ferry Plant in Schenectady and Saratoga counties.

Gas-fired generation

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Other generating facilities include two natural gas-fueled combined cycle power plants: the 150-MW Richard M. Flynn Power Plant, in Holtsville, Long Island and a 500-MW facility, in Astoria, Queens.

Additionally, NYPA operates ten small power plants also fueled by natural gas. Those sites – six in New York City and one in Long Island – have combined output of 460-MW.[7]

 
NYPA Gas Power Plants
Power Plant[8] Location Nameplate Rating (MW) Capacity Factor 2019
Pouch Staten Island 47 12.10%
Vernon Blvd Queens 94 4.3%
Kent/North 1st Brooklyn 47 7.7%
Gowanus 5-6/Joseph Seymour Brooklyn 94 9.3%
Harlem River Yard Bronx 94 3.5%
Hell Gate Bronx 94 3.5%
Brentwood Islip/Suffolk County 47 13.0%
Astoria CC 1 and 2 (Zeltmann) Queens 576 48.7%
Flynn Holtsville 170 26.2%

Electric transmission lines

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The hub of NYPA’s statewide power transmission facilities is the Frederick R. Clark Energy Center, in Marcy, New York. NYPA’s high-voltage transmission assets include a 765-kilovolt (kV) line that stretches more than 100 miles from the Canada–US border to the Clark Energy Center and almost 1,000 miles of 345-kV power lines that crisscross New York State, including the Marcy South line and a 26.3 mi (42.3 km) transmission project, that follows an underground and underwater path from Westchester County to Long Island.

New York State Canal Corporation

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The New York Power Authority has been financially responsible for the New York State Canal Corporation since April 2016 and has owned it since January 1, 2017.[1]

History

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Then-New York Governor Roosevelt signed the Power Authority Act into law on April 27, 1931 that established the Power Authority of the State of New York (PASNY); the name was later changed to New York Power Authority (NYPA). Leland Olds headed the authority from 1931 to 1939.[9]

 
St. Lawrence Power Project

St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt Power Project

The International Joint Commission granted its approval for a cross-border construction project in 1952. In 1953, the Federal Power Commission issued a license for NYPA to develop the U.S. portion of a power dam crossing the Canada–US border. On May 13, 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation that cleared the way for construction of both a hydroelectric facility and the St. Lawrence Seaway. First power was achieved in July 1958, and on June 27, 1959, Queen Elizabeth II and Vice President Richard M. Nixon formally dedicated the St. Lawrence Project as a symbol of international cooperation. In 1981, NYPA’s half of the cross-border power dam was renamed the St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt Power Project in honor of the man who founded the Power Authority half a century earlier.

Niagara Power Project

 
Niagara Power Vista

In 1956, a rockslide destroyed most of the Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation's Schoellkopf hydropower plant, resulting in a power shortage that endangered thousands of local manufacturing jobs. In response to the emergency, Congress passed the Niagara Redevelopment Act in 1957. After obtaining a license from the Federal Power Commission, Robert Moses commenced work on NYPA’s second hydroelectric generating station in early 1958. When it was completed, three years later, the Niagara Power Project was the largest facility of its kind in the Western world. In a recorded message broadcast February 10, 1961, to mark first power, President John F. Kennedy called the Niagara project “an outstanding engineering achievement” and an “example to the world of North American efficiency and determination.”

 
Blenheim-Gilboa Power Project

Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project
Legislation signed by Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller in 1968 allowed NYPA to expand its generation assets and build nuclear and pumped storage power projects. This led to construction of the Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project, which produced electricity for the first time in July 1973, and the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant (named after a NYPA chairman), in Scriba, Oswego County, where power was first generated in February 1975.

List of Chairs of the New York Power Authority

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Francis Patrick Walsh, 1931-1939.
James Cummings Bonbright, 1939-1946.[10]
Maj.-Gen. Francis Bowditch Wilby, 1946-1950.[11]
John Edward Burton, 1950-1954.[12]
Robert Moses, 1954-1963.
James A. FitzPatrick, 1963-1977.[13]
Frederick R. Clark, 1977-1979.[14]
John Stuart Dyson, 1979-1985.
Richard M. Flynn, 1985-1994.[15]
Clarence D. Rappleyea Jr., 1995-2001.
Joseph J. Seymour, 2001-2002.
Louis P. Ciminelli, 2002-2006.
Frank S. McCullough Jr., 2006-2008.
Michael J. Townsend, 2008-2012.
John R. Koelmel, 2012.
Gil C. Quiniones, 2012-2021.[16]
Justin Driscoll, 2022–Present.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "N.Y. Power Authority to Assume Ownership of Canal Corporation on New Year's Day". New York Power Authority. January 2, 2017. Archived from the original on February 8, 2017. Retrieved February 7, 2017.
  2. ^ a b "Socialists wanted him to resign. They lost". POLITICO.
  3. ^ "NYPA Org Webpage". November 5, 2018. Archived from the original on January 11, 2019. Retrieved November 5, 2018.
  4. ^ "NYSABO 2018 Report" (PDF). November 5, 2018. pp. 16, 29, 44. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 5, 2018. Retrieved November 5, 2018.
  5. ^ a b "20220726-Trustees Vote".
  6. ^ "StackPath". October 14, 2021.
  7. ^ "NYPA Generating Facilities". Archived from the original on January 11, 2019. Retrieved June 14, 2019.
  8. ^ "New York State Just Transition Working Group Power Plant Subgroup CLCPA: "identify facilities that may be closed as a result of a transition to a clean energy sector"" (PDF). Climate Act New York. June 21, 2024.
  9. ^ "Leland Olds, 1890-1960" (PDF). Gale Group. Retrieved September 8, 2024.
  10. ^ "James C. Bonbright papers, 1921-1983".
  11. ^ "Officers of the US Army 1939-1945 -- W".
  12. ^ "The Political Graveyard: Economist Politicians".
  13. ^ Uhlig, Mark A. (February 14, 1988). "James FitzPatrick, 71, Ex-Head of Power Agency and Lawmaker". The New York Times.
  14. ^ "NY Power Celebrates 25th Anniversary of Clark Energy Center". ElectricNet. September 12, 2005.
  15. ^ McFadden, Robert D. (November 21, 1993). "Power Authority Head Quits After Months of Criticism". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on January 17, 2018. Retrieved November 30, 2021.
  16. ^ "NYPA Board of Trustees appoint Driscoll as new president, CEO". NNY360. July 27, 2022.
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