New York Power Authority

Western New York needs people to fill the jobs that cro- growth creates.

Speaking of that specific need, the New York Power Authority awarded $10 million to support workforce development programs.

The programs are designed to prepare residents for jobs in the nuclear energy industry.

The Power Authority awarded $1.3 million to Jamestown Community College for the development of a three-course nuclear manufacturing micro-credential and a welder certification-based pathway.

I'm very excited to have this conversation.

Uh, Gil and I have known each other for quite a long time, back to days when I was working in New York City, uh, in my early days at Bloomberg, and he was also working both there and then at the New York Power Authority, and I'm expecting a very good conversation.

Um, we've got a lot to talk about here, and I'm just gonna jump right into it.

And Gil, I'm gonna start with a sort of biography in two parts.

I was the senior vice president of energy and telecom and really worked with him, Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, in the rebuilding of, of New York City.

So I would say that's, uh, chapter two.

And then chapter three, I was asked to lead the New York Power Authority.

After deregulation, the New York Power Authority was asked to basically step back.

Tracy writes, "The federal government has approved an application to alter the boundaries of Robert Moses Niagara Hydroelectric Project, a necessary step toward a proposed one hundred and twenty-five million dollar development project in Niagara Falls.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on September twenty-fifth issued an order amending the project boundaries for the New York Power Authority facility to remove a four point eight acre parcel of land on the Niagara River.

Though the project is owned and operated by the authority, it is regulated by the FERC.

The parcel sits among a handful of parcels on seven acres controlled by Element Development, an affiliate of Rupal Hospitality, which wants to build a one hundred and twenty-five million dollar mixed-use development totaling four hundred and sixty-nine thousand square feet of residential, restaurant, and retail space at nine oh one and one thousand and one Buffalo Avenue.

The Town is currently overseeing this cost under an agreement that runs until October.

Town Financial Budget Officer Jacqueline Agnello said the town has covered $66,000 in village electrical expenses thus far through its H-98 New York Power Authority account and this funding arrangement would continue.

Following an earlier public hearing, the board approved a local law to create a six-month moratorium on storage containers in the town.

It then announced plans for public hearing to consider a six-month moratorium covering battery energy storage systems in Lewiston.

We're talking with Fred Harrison, who's a longtime utility rate payer and environmental advocate down in the Long Island area, active with Food and Water Watch and the Alliance for... non-nuclear New York, non-nuclear future.

And recently, the Public Service Commission was accepting comments on the Governor Hochul's proposals to build out new nuclear power plants in New York, one gigawatt being built by the New York Power Authority and then presumably four others being built by the private sector.

So, Fred, what were some of the concerns that groups like the Alliance for Nuclear-Free New York have raised with respect to Governor Hochul's proposal?

Firstly, thank you very much for having me and for making sure that this issue is well covered.

The town is currently overseeing this cost under an agreement that runs until October.

Town Financial Budget Officer Jacqueline Agnello said the town has covered $66,000 in village electrical expenses thus far through its H-98 New York Power Authority account, and this funding arrangement would continue.

Following an earlier public hearing, the board approved a local law to create a six-month moratorium on storage containers in the town.

It then announced plans for public hearing to consider a six-month moratorium covering battery energy storage systems in Lewiston.

The state says it supported the project to help boost regional touring and drive the revitalization of Buffalo's east side.

The project was also funded through additional state support, including a $550,000 capital grant from Western New York Regional Economic Development Council, over $536,000 from the New York Power Authority and Western New York Power Proceeds, and $375,000 secured by State Senator April Baskin, a Democrat from Buffalo.

This is a massive victory for Buffalo on the east side, said Mo Sumbundu, director of community relations for Governor Kathy Hochul.

We've teamed up with the Bills, Sabres, and Bandits to create something that's truly magical for Buffalo.

And indeed, we're also working on how The Azure's lab, the facility can help support even the power quality issues in the distribution systems.

So I think the digital twin or digital grid that NYPA Azure has provided a very good platform to mimic the real grid operation of the whole New York State grid.

And the university role there is really trying to develop the models with all the cutting-edge technologies.

And before they really implement into the field, we can de-risk the technology with agile's facility there.

It's a big deal and it set forth a number of different activities that I could just touch on very briefly and happy to dig into any one of them as you'd be interested.

First, she directed the New York Power Authority, so that's a sister agency to NYSERDA, to build at least one gigawatt of those five gigawatts.

So NYPA has been working to identify sites, technologies, counterparties, et cetera, as a major down payment on that five gigawatt mark.

It also has really organized the state and the many actors across the state toward the advancement of this goal in a responsible and cost-effective way through the development of a master plan for advanced nuclear development that we at NYSERDA are developing in conjunction with the New York State Department of Public Service.

Uh, you can actually see it on my Instagram or the Public Power Instagram back in November of 2024.

But I spoke to the New York Power Authority at a public hearing on stage with executives from the New York Power Authority, and I talked to them about this story of almost losing everything and finding out that my family's home...

Accepting that we were about to lose our whole home, and then finding that by some miracle it had stopped 50 feet away, this massive forest fire.

And that the only thing that I felt in that moment was not relief, but just the feeling that this was the beginning of a series of much worse disasters.