NYPA works to add farms

MASSENA — The New York Power Authority had planned to implement their north country Stimulus Program by the end of September, but officials say working out the finer details is taking longer than anticipated.

NYPA CEO Richard M. Kessel hopes the program will be finalized — and expanded to include dairy farmers — within the next few weeks.

The program is intended to give business customers in St. Lawrence, Jefferson and Franklin counties a 10 percent to 15 percent break on their energy bills, using an estimated $10 million in unanticipated revenues NYPA will gain from the sale of power Alcoa temporarily relinquished when the Massena East plant was idled.

Utility customers on the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation are also expected to receive the discounts. However, businesses that already enjoy low-cost power through municipal electric districts like Massena, Philadelphia and Theresa will not be included in the program.

Investor-owned utilities like National Grid are expected to pass the savings on to their commercial customers through their regular billing process.

"We're very close to getting it off the ground," Mr. Kessel said. "We're working very closely with National Grid to make sure that everyone who is eligible will get the reduction."

The NYPA chief said implementing the program has been a bit more complicated than officials there had thought, especially now that the power authority is planning to extend the program to dairy farmers.

Some dairy farmers have noted they are billed not as commercial customers but on a residential basis, primarily because of the size of their farms.

Offering the discount only to National Grid's commercial customers would cut out these smaller farmers, so additional work has been needed to avoid that problem.

"It's kind of bogged down a bit because there are some classifications we want to include, like dairy farmers, which are hard to clarify," Mr. Kessel said. "We want to make sure everyone eligible gets to take advantage of it."

NYPA spokesman Michael A. Saltzman said the power authority is also coordinating with Gov. David A. Paterson's office to get the program up and running.

"We're anticipating an announcement on the implementation of the program soon," Mr. Saltzman said.