Staff reports
The Tonawanda News
Tonawanda News — DEVELOPMENT
10 WNY companies get low-cost power
Ten Western New York businesses are new recipients of low-cost electricity in the second round of allocations by the New York Power Authority under the state’s Recharge NY Program.
Diversified Manufacturing Inc. and VanDeMark Chemical Inc., both of Lockport, will be able to enter contracts with NYPA guaranteeing access to low-cost kilowatts for up to seven years. The recommended allowances are 196 kW for Diversified and 290 kW for VanDeMark.
Also approved for Recharge NY participation on Tuesday, locally, were: in Niagara Falls, Calspan Corporation, 90 kW, and J.D. Calato Mfg. Co., 36 kW; in Porter, CWM Chemical Services, 480 kW; in Medina, EPCO Carbon Dioxide Products, 250 kW; in Brockport, CW Cold Storage, 140 kW; and in Rochester, Celmet Company Inc., 96 kW, XLI Corporation, 130 kW, and EPP Team Inc., 250 kW.
Statewide, 678 businesses are now approved to participate in Recharge NY, which replaced the old Power For Jobs low-cost access program in 2011.
Recharge NY makes 910 megawatts of low-cost electricity available, on long-term contracts, to companies creating and retaining jobs in the state. The program reserves 350 megawatts for economic development in the National Grid, NYSE&G and RG&E service territories; 200 megawatts to attract new investment; and 100 megawatts for non-profit institutions such as hospitals. The power is “paid” for partly by the phase-out of a NYPA-supported discount on residential electric bills upstate, which in turn is offset by expiration of an electric utility state surcharge in 2009-11.
The legislation that led to Recharge NY was sponsored, in the state Senate, by Sen. George Maziarz, R-Newfane, chairman of the senate energy & telecommunications committee. Program participants are approved by the NYPA board of directors.
“The businesses selected (in the second round) have clearly shown their commitment to the community. This low-cost energy will inevitably help keep business in this area for a long time and will in turn help grow the region’s economy,” Maziarz said Wednesday in a press statement. “I applaud the New York Power Authority for their selection of such deserving recipients.”
