N.Y. Power Authority Awards Contracts To Two Amherst Firms For Engineering Services

The New York Power Authority (NYPA) Board of Trustees on Wednesday approved competitive contract awards to two Erie County businesses for upgrades to the safety systems at the St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt Power Project, in Massena, and an assessment of the control room equipment of the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant, in Lewiston.

The contracts awards went to Johnson Controls, Inc. (JCI), for approximately $4.9M and Hatch Associates Consultants, Inc., for $434,600. Both firms are in the Town of Amherst.

“NYPA is vigilant about ensuring a safe working environment for our employees and protecting the integrity of our power plant assets,” said Gil C. Quiniones, NYPA president and chief executive officer. “The selection of two Western New York firms to perform the installation of state-of-the-art safety equipment and for critical engineering assessments is another demonstration of the depth of skill, and wide range of expertise New York State businesses have to offer.”

JCI will provide engineering, procurement, installation, startup, testing, demolition and commissioning of a comprehensive safety system project at St. Lawrence-FDR. The initiative, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2016, will include a new public address system at the hydroelectric plant, fire alarm system and exit and emergency lighting systems.

Under the contract award to Hatch Associates, the firm will assess the central control room systems at the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant, which is the Niagara Power Project’s main generating facility.

The central control room monitors and controls the Robert Moses plant’s 13 generating units; the 12 generating/pump units at the Lewiston Pump-Generating Plant, the Niagara project’s auxiliary facility; and the switchyard circuit breakers of the project’s transmission facilities.

The technical and fiscal assessment by Hatch, to be completed in 2016, is prelude to a planned upgrade by NYPA to the Niagara project’s monitoring and control systems. This will center on technology improvements and system redundancy measures, in support of the hydroelectric facility’s dependable and efficient operations in the decades ahead.

The contracts awards to JCI and Hatch resulted from a competitive bidding process. 

About NYPA
The New York Power Authority has been designated as the lead entity via Executive Order 88 by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to form a central management and implementation plan to carry out his Build Smart NY plan to reduce energy use by state facilities by 20 percent by 2020. NYPA uses no tax money or state credit. It finances its operations through the sale of bonds and revenues earned in large part through sales of electricity. NYPA is the nation's largest state public power organization, through the operation of its 16 generating facilities in various parts of New York State, participation in a unique public/private partnership to contract for power from a clean generating plant in Queens, and its operation of more than 1,400 circuit-miles of transmission lines. More than 70 percent of the electricity NYPA produces is clean renewable hydropower. Its lower-cost power production and electricity purchases support hundreds of thousands of jobs throughout the state. For more information, visit www.nypa.gov.