For the record:
The New York Power Authority has no plans to build another pumped storage project here, now or in the future.
That was the question on the table Friday when a NYPA delegation spoke to the Board of Supervisors.
The possibility—call it fear or trepidation, Flood Committee chair Don Airey said--was raised in April, when Ted Werner of Fulton warned supervisors he could see another Blenheim-Gilboa on the horizon.
“That’s the keynote of this visit,” he said.
He’s seen the stories and the discussions, but even with the move toward renewables and people recognizing the value of pumped storage projects, “There’s been no discussion,” of that, Brian Saez, NYPA’s manager of Community Regional Manager, told supervisors.
“There’s been “no discussion lately, that I’m aware of, either expanding the footprint of Blenheim-Gilboa, if it’s even possible, or developing any of these other sites,” Mr. Saez said, referencing the 40-50 other sites considered when B-G was built.
Siting any pumped storage facility is “extremely challenging,” Mr. Saez said, “and I really have a hard time imaging that right now. There’s really been no discussion.”
Mr. Airey said before the NYPA presentation that he wanted that point on the record.
Mr. Airey’s—and Mr. Werner’s—concern was prompted by a proposal to build an 800-acre pumped storage project in the Greene County Town of Olive at the Ashokan Reservoir.
Like the Schoharie Reservoir in the Town of Gilboa, the Ashokan Reservoir provides clean drinking water to New York City; NYPA’s B-G reservoirs generate electricity.
In April, surprise plans by a California company, Premium Energy Holdings, to build an 800-acre pumped storage project were withdrawn in light of community opposition.
At the time. Premium Energy’s Victor Rojas told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission the company could submit a new application, “Once a more suitable project location is identified.”
“So you see where we’re coming from,” Mr. Airey said.
Also, Friday, Mario Roefaro, NYPA’s manager of Community and Government Relations, touched on Clean Path, New York State’s $11 billion, 175-mile infrastructure project to deliver green energy from Delhi, in Delaware County, to Queens.
The transmission lines being built for Clean Path NY will all be underground, Mr. Roefaro said, and they’ll all be outside of Schoharie County.
The project’s tie to B-G is that it will be using existing power lines to Delhi, he said.
Clean Path is an Article 7 project and it’s now in the pre-application phase, he said.
Once it’s been filed with the Public Service Commission there will be a place online for people to submit concerns.
Informational open houses will also be held in the impacted areas, and in fact, they’ve already begun, both in Delaware County and downstate.