If you’ve never heard of the Schoharie County Power Company just wait.
With an eye to how the county can best address alternative energy, it’s an idea treasurer Bill Cherry floated at the Chamber of Commerce’s State of the County Breakfast Saturday.
The event’s theme? Alternate energy.
Mr. Cherry said he’s been looking at the idea of a county-wide electrical company similar to the “success story” of Richmondville Power and Light.
Richmondville, which doesn’t generate its own electricity, instead buying it off the grid, charges six cents a kilowatt hour, Mr. Cherry said.
“I pulled out my National Grid bill before I came and I’m paying 21 cents a kilowatt hour,” he said. “That’s a big difference. And we wouldn’t be reinventing the wheel.”
Mr. Cherry said Schoharie County Power might even be able to buy hydropower directly from the New York Power Authority.
One hurdle to the whole idea, he said, is that the county would have to buy National Grid’s delivery infrastructure, including its transmission lines.
Another is that the Power Authority’s hydropower is already all allocated to the grid.
Because of that, he said, the idea would require special legislation but it’s something he believes could be accomplished.
“It’s not without challenges, but I think it’s doable.
”Not only would a local power company mean lower rates, Mr. Cherry said, it would also mean local jobs and local administration.
“I would rather have us responsible for our own electrical needs,” he said.
Mr. Cherry said afterwards that he was in discussions with Albany County, which was interested in joining in the project last summer and had even drawn up a resolution for supervisors.
He stopped short of presenting it, however when he learned the Albany County legislator he was working with, Sandy Gordon, was working for Reunion Power, the Vermont-based company looking at putting wind turbines in Richmondville and Fulton, a connection, Mr. Cherry said, Mr. Gordon never shared.
“I was pretty mad when I found out,” he said. “I just put everything on hold.”
Though wind power remains controversial, Mr. Cherry said if turbines like Reunion’s are approved, it’s possible the power they generate could be tapped into for local use as well, something that might make them easier for opponents to swallow.
But if projects like Reunion’s become a reality, he argued against granting them PILOTs—payments-in-lieu-of-taxes,
“There are already 17 utilities in Schoharie County paying $1.6 million a year in taxes,” he said.
“If we grant PILOTS to someone new, it won’t be long before the other dominoes start to fall.”