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Power authority considers hydro
By Paul Crossman
Hudson-Catskill Newspapers
The Kinderhook Power Committee, headed by Councilman Peter Bujanow, has been working towards creating and maintaining a cheaper, cleaner form of energy for the town.
Ideas about the best way to start bringing this ideal have been discussed in meetings for the past several months, but according to Bujanow, the committee has reshaped the agenda into a two-prong approach, which they believe is the best way proceed.
“The ultimate goal is to provide power to the town, but we know that’s going to take some time,” Bujanow told the Register-Star.
The first step, he said, will be to generate power to the buildings at Volunteers Park, and if successful at that the committee will look at taking the second step — expanding the power authority into the rest of the town.
Bujanow wanted to point out that a major purpose of the power authority is to provide cleaner energy for the town, but under no circumstances does the committee intend to increase taxes, or make the town foot the bill.
“The goal is to do this at little or no cost to the taxpayers,” he said. “This alternative energy idea is meant to lower the burden on the taxpayers, not increase it.”
He went on to say that he intended to try and fund the project almost entirely with the use of grants or private funding, with the first step being the application for a grant from NYSERDA to begin a feasibility study on both the Volunteers Park campus, and then the rest of the town.
The idea of private funding is another new one for the committee, and one which Bujanow says he finds very promising.
He said he got the idea, called “performance contracting” while serving on the Ichabod Crane Central School District Board of Education. Performance contracting would bring in private investors, who would either partner with the town on the project to help take care of up front costs, or front all costs for the project, and then sell the power to the town cheaper than the current rate.
“A power authority does not necessarily mean that we have to generate our own power,” said Bujanow. “It could be a joint venture, or [an outside contractor] could make their own energy and sell it to us cheaper than National Grid.”
An example of this (with fictional figures) would be that if National Grid currently charges $.20 a kilowatt for energy, and an outside contractor builds a wind and solar farm on Kinderhook land with which it costs them $.05 cents to create the energy, they could then sell the energy to the town at $.10 a kilowatt. The outside contractor would then make a decent profit, and the town would still see large savings.
Aside from this idea, but on a similar note, the town discussed agreements with neighboring towns that have hydropower generators to use as backup power, is now considering intermunicipal agreements where the generators would be the main power source for Kinderhook.
Both Stuyvesant and Valatie have such hydroplants, and Stuyvesant’s generates much more power than is needed by their residents.
“The beauty of Stuyvesant’s project is that they have a capability that exceeds the needs of that community. It would only make sense if we could get an intermunicipal agreement to have that plant help power the town of Kinderhook.”
Though this seems like a promising idea, Bujanow admits that there are issues to work out to make it feasible, as right now the energy transmitted by the Stuyvesant plant remains partially transmitted by National Grid.
In the near future, the town is looking at working with Cornell University, who owns much of the property around the Volunteers Park campus, in an effort to obtain use of the land for the solar panels and wind generators which will be the bulk of the power project.
The biggest issue for the committee right now is still the transmission of power once it is generated, and at some point in the future Bujanow hopes to come to an agreement with National Grid to be able to use the existing lines to transmit power generated by the town. This though, he admits, may take a lot of work by the town and outside lobbyists.
“The problem is that the power lobby is a big entity to deal with. They have a lot of strength. It will definitely take a lot of lobbying to allow them to run our power through the existing grid.”
Regardless of hurdles in the way, Bujanow’s committee looked at similar power authorities run by other towns, and remain happy with the progress they are making, and believe the project can be brought to fruition.
“It’s not a new concept. It’s been done before, and we want to do the same thing here. Longterm, that’s where we’re heading, that’s what we want to do.”
***
To reach reporter Paul Crossman call 518-828-1616, ext. 2266, or e-mail pcrossman@registerstar.com.
Ideas about the best way to start bringing this ideal have been discussed in meetings for the past several months, but according to Bujanow, the committee has reshaped the agenda into a two-prong approach, which they believe is the best way proceed.
“The ultimate goal is to provide power to the town, but we know that’s going to take some time,” Bujanow told the Register-Star.
The first step, he said, will be to generate power to the buildings at Volunteers Park, and if successful at that the committee will look at taking the second step — expanding the power authority into the rest of the town.
Bujanow wanted to point out that a major purpose of the power authority is to provide cleaner energy for the town, but under no circumstances does the committee intend to increase taxes, or make the town foot the bill.
“The goal is to do this at little or no cost to the taxpayers,” he said. “This alternative energy idea is meant to lower the burden on the taxpayers, not increase it.”
He went on to say that he intended to try and fund the project almost entirely with the use of grants or private funding, with the first step being the application for a grant from NYSERDA to begin a feasibility study on both the Volunteers Park campus, and then the rest of the town.
The idea of private funding is another new one for the committee, and one which Bujanow says he finds very promising.
He said he got the idea, called “performance contracting” while serving on the Ichabod Crane Central School District Board of Education. Performance contracting would bring in private investors, who would either partner with the town on the project to help take care of up front costs, or front all costs for the project, and then sell the power to the town cheaper than the current rate.
“A power authority does not necessarily mean that we have to generate our own power,” said Bujanow. “It could be a joint venture, or [an outside contractor] could make their own energy and sell it to us cheaper than National Grid.”
An example of this (with fictional figures) would be that if National Grid currently charges $.20 a kilowatt for energy, and an outside contractor builds a wind and solar farm on Kinderhook land with which it costs them $.05 cents to create the energy, they could then sell the energy to the town at $.10 a kilowatt. The outside contractor would then make a decent profit, and the town would still see large savings.
Aside from this idea, but on a similar note, the town discussed agreements with neighboring towns that have hydropower generators to use as backup power, is now considering intermunicipal agreements where the generators would be the main power source for Kinderhook.
Both Stuyvesant and Valatie have such hydroplants, and Stuyvesant’s generates much more power than is needed by their residents.
“The beauty of Stuyvesant’s project is that they have a capability that exceeds the needs of that community. It would only make sense if we could get an intermunicipal agreement to have that plant help power the town of Kinderhook.”
Though this seems like a promising idea, Bujanow admits that there are issues to work out to make it feasible, as right now the energy transmitted by the Stuyvesant plant remains partially transmitted by National Grid.
In the near future, the town is looking at working with Cornell University, who owns much of the property around the Volunteers Park campus, in an effort to obtain use of the land for the solar panels and wind generators which will be the bulk of the power project.
The biggest issue for the committee right now is still the transmission of power once it is generated, and at some point in the future Bujanow hopes to come to an agreement with National Grid to be able to use the existing lines to transmit power generated by the town. This though, he admits, may take a lot of work by the town and outside lobbyists.
“The problem is that the power lobby is a big entity to deal with. They have a lot of strength. It will definitely take a lot of lobbying to allow them to run our power through the existing grid.”
Regardless of hurdles in the way, Bujanow’s committee looked at similar power authorities run by other towns, and remain happy with the progress they are making, and believe the project can be brought to fruition.
“It’s not a new concept. It’s been done before, and we want to do the same thing here. Longterm, that’s where we’re heading, that’s what we want to do.”
***
To reach reporter Paul Crossman call 518-828-1616, ext. 2266, or e-mail pcrossman@registerstar.com.
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