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Power Grid Issues forum raises specter of higher electric rates for the mid-Hudson

by Frances Marion Platt
April 14, 2016
in General News
1
Last Wednesday, Citizens for Local Power, the Towns of Rochester and Rosendale and the Marbletown Environmental Conservation Committee invited the public and local and county officials to attend an informational forum: “New Power Grid Issues in the Hudson Valley: How the New Capacity Zone and Proposed Transmission Upgrades Impact Our Communities.” The event took place at the Marbletown Community Center in Stone Ridge. Local taxpayers offered questions and comments during the forum. (photo by Lauren Thomas)
Last Wednesday, Citizens for Local Power, the Towns of Rochester and Rosendale and the Marbletown Environmental Conservation Committee invited the public and local and county officials to attend an informational forum: “New Power Grid Issues in the Hudson Valley: How the New Capacity Zone and Proposed Transmission Upgrades Impact Our Communities.” The event took place at the Marbletown Community Center in Stone Ridge. Local taxpayers offered questions and comments during the forum. (photo by Lauren Thomas)

On Wednesday evening, Jan. 29, alarmed consumers packed the Marbletown Community Center in Stone Ridge hoping to learn more about two major impending changes to the transport and delivery of electric power in the Hudson Valley and what, if anything, might be done to influence them. Organized by a grassroots organization called Citizens for Local Power (CLP), the public forum was titled “New Power Grid Issues in the Hudson Valley: How the New Capacity Zone and Proposed Transmission Upgrades Impact Our Communities.”

The forum brought together representatives of the Public Service Commission (PSC), New York Independent Systems Operator (ISO), Central Hudson/Fortis and Boundless Energy, as well as an attorney representing several towns potentially impacted by the proposed changes, to try to illuminate some of the complexities of what’s about to happen. But many in the audience seemed frustrated by what appeared to be a fait accomplí, with little opportunity being offered for the public to influence the decisions of state and federal agencies and courts that will ultimately decide on how the changes will play out.

Rosendale Town Board member Jen Metzger, a founding member of CLP, began with a brief summary of the forces currently converging on the mid-Hudson’s power grid. The first component is the creation of a “New Capacity Zone,” ordered by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in August 2013 at the request of ISO and set to take effect May 1, 2014. The second consists of plans to upgrade high-voltage power transmission lines passing through the mid-Hudson: a key component of governor Andrew Cuomo’s New York Energy Highway Blueprint released in 2013. “It’s important that we understand the costs and benefits of both programs to us here in Ulster County,” said Metzger.

The main problem, all the panelists seemed to agree, is that the section of existing transmission lines between Leeds in Greene County and Pleasant Valley in Dutchess County constitutes a “bottleneck” in the transport of power from major generation points further upstate, such as Canadian hydropower plants and wind farms on the Tug Hill Plateau, to New York City and Long Island, where demand is highest. Four applications are currently under consideration by the PSC for projects that would upgrade the infrastructure and alleviate the problem. Three of the proposals would route the power through Dutchess County’s existing transmission corridor, possibly requiring the construction of additional towers.

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Tags: Citizens for Local PowerMarbletownrosendaleStone Ridgeutilities
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Frances Marion Platt

Frances Marion Platt has been a feature writer (and copyeditor) for Ulster Publishing since 1994, under both her own name and the nom de plume Zhemyna Jurate. Her reporting beats include Gardiner and Rosendale, the arts and a bit of local history. In 2011 she took up Syd M’s mantle as film reviewer for Alm@nac Weekly, and she hopes to return to doing more of that as HV1 recovers from the shock of COVID-19. A Queens native, Platt moved to New Paltz in 1971 to earn a BA in English and minor in Linguistics at SUNY. Her first writing/editing gig was with the Ulster County Artist magazine. In the 1980s she was assistant editor of The Independent Film and Video Monthly for five years, attended Heartwood Owner/Builder School, designed and built a timberframe house in Gardiner. Her son Evan Pallor was born in 1995. Alternating with her journalism career, she spent many years doing development work – mainly grantwriting – for a variety of not-for-profit organizations, including six years at Scenic Hudson. She currently lives in Kingston.

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