The present FERC license for the plant expires in 2011. Green Island Power Authority hopes that a new 40 to 50-year license could be approved within six to 12 months. It has been working on the relicensing since 2006.
GIPA intends to build a 100-MW hydro plant on the Mohawk River, just above the Cohoes Falls.
However, Brookfield Renewable Power operates a 38.8-MW hydro plant below the falls on School Street in the city of Cohoes, and only one plant can operate on that part of the river.
GIPA supplies the village with electricity through low-cost power contracts it has with the New York Power Authority and the New York Municipal Power Agency. It sells the power it produces from the Hudson into the state’s wholesale electricity auction.
Its contract with NYMPA, though, which is for supplemental power beyond its roughly 3-MW allotment from the NYPA, expires in 2013.
Brown said expansion plans of the hydroelectric power plant in Hudson will help GIPA meet the village’s power requirements, which are anticipated to rise from the current 7MW to as much as 20MW within five years as more businesses move to the village seeking cheap power.
The expansion should also help encourage the economy, he said.
The economy is in the toilet, and this project will provide construction jobs for the expansion, Brown said.
