The Board of Public Utilities’ Samuel A. Carlson Electric Generating Station is one of the oldest and most successful municipal power plants in the country and, the City of Jamestown’s BPU is the largest of 47 municipally-owned and operated utilities in New York State.

The City’s first power plant began generating electricity in 1891 to provide power for 140 carbon arc lights to illuminate downtown streets. While street lighting was not new to the citizens, their excitement was in the ownership of the municipal facility. When city fathers realized the expense of paying for machinery used only to produce electricity at night, they decided to begin competing with established power producers for other uses of the generation.

The Board of Public Utilities was created by the City Charter of 1923 to guide the development of the community’s electric and water services with the District Heat Division added in 1985 and Solid Waste and Wastewater added in 1994.

Located in the center of downtown Jamestown on the banks of the Chadakoin River, the Generating Station has been enlarged over the years to keep pace with community growth. There are presently four coal-fired boilers which produce steam to drive two turbine generators to produce a combined total output of approximately 50 megawatts (MW) of electrical energy.

The preference power provision of the 1957 Federal Niagara Redevelopment Act underlies the ability of municipal electric systems across New York to obtain low cost Niagara hydropower from the New York Power Authority. The BPU relentlessly pursued securing its fair share and, in 1971, began purchasing this inexpensively produced hydropower to augment its own medium-priced (~$0.03/kilowatt to produce), coal-fired generation.

In 1989, Opinion #329 of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission directed the Power Authority to allocate an additional 23 megawatts of hydropower to Jamestown to replace 13 megawatts of nuclear power (~$0.05/kilowatt to produce) the BPU had been purchasing, thus saving Jamestown customers more than $3,000,000 each year. Since late 1991, the BPU has arranged to receive an allotment of 72 megawatts (68MW delivered to Jamestown after line losses).

Jamestown’s winter peak of approximately 100 MW is due to significant use of the inexpensive electricity for heating in the winter. Since the BPU can neither produce nor buy all the power it needs to meet its peak demand, it uniquely combines its hydropower purchase and its own generation to meet its needs, using as much of the inexpensive hydropower as possible and augmenting it with the mid-cost, coal-fired power.

In the mid 1980s, after careful study and deliberation, it was decided to modify the plant to co-generate hot water heat to supply the newly-created District Heat Division of the BPU and to upgrade and continue the operation of the Generating Station for the next 25-30 years – through at least the year 2010.

In 2003, the BPU completed the major portion of a $40,000,000 improvement of its generating and transmission and distribution systems, primarily at the Power Plant and Dow Street locations. Today with that project completed, an additional 43 megawatts of electrical energy were added with the installation of a new General Electric LM 6000 gas turbine generator. The addition of this generator allows the BPU to utilize fuel flexibility and decrease air emissions. The addition of a Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) allows steam produced from the LM 6000 exhaust to augment or offset steam previously produced only by the coal-fired boilers to supply the customers of the District Heat Division.

Of the $40,000,000 improvement, $8,000,000 was spent to upgrade the utility’s internal distribution system, adding another substation at the already existing Dow Street Intertie to Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation. The City’s major point of interconnection with transmission lines owned by others (Dow Street Substation) allows the import and export of greater amounts of electricity than before possible. Coupled with changes in the New York market for power, the substation expansion presents significant opportunities for revenue generation from off system sales.

While the existing plant has provided good service to the community for nearly five decades, it is approaching the end of its useful life. Instead of continuing to spend increasing funds on maintaining the existing plant, the BPU is proposing to construct a new efficient, state-of-the-art Circulating Fluidized Bed Clean Coal Plant (CFB). Once the CFB is operational, the BPU will retire two of its existing boilers

The BPU has studied more than ten different power supply options for future supply including the discontinuation of the operation of the Carlson Plant coal-fired units. The closure of the Carlson Plant would significantly limit the ability of the BPU to continue to provide low-cost, reliable power to its existing customers. The closure would also undermine the on-going efforts to maintain the remaining local manufacturing base, as well as virtually eliminate the use of low cost BPU power as an element in the plans for the revitalization of the Jamestown economy.

Immediate results of the Carlson Plant closure would result in:

• As significant increase in electric bills for businesses and residents of Jamestown.
• Annual loss of:
$2.6 million in payroll and benefits in the City of Jamestown,
• $600,000 in estimated tax equivalent payments to the City of Jamestown, which translates to a tax increase of $3.00/$1,000,
• $600,000 in estimated tax equivalent payments to the Jamestown Public School System, which translates to a school tax increase of $4.80/$1,000 assessed true value or $2.85/$1,000 present Jamestown value,
• $7.8 million in revenue and property taxes to the Greater Jamestown Area, and
• $18 million in revenue for the region.

Currently, coal offers more stability in both price and domestic supply than natural gas. U.S. coal reserves are approximately 30 times greater than natural gas reserves, and the cost of coal has remained constant for the past decade at approximately $1 per million BTUs (British thermal units). Natural gas prices soared to more than $20 per million BTUs in February of 2003 when cold weather, international tensions and other factors dramatically diminished available supplies. Industry experts predict that tight supplies and extreme price volatility will continue for the natural gas market. The BPU’s goal is to provide inexpensive, reliable, environmentally-compatible electric service to retain people and businesses in Jamestown and the surrounding are and does not want to become dependent on one fuel to avoid the price shocks that are felt across the country with escalating natural gas prices. The combination of the existing facilities and the proposed CFB plant will enable the BPU to meet these objectives.

A Circulating Fluidized Bed is a highly efficient means of generating low-cost electricity while operating with minimal environmental impacts. In CFBs, crushed coal is mixed with limestone and fired in a process resembling a boiling fluid. The limestone removes the sulfur and converts it into an environmentally –benign powder that is removed with ash. Fluidized bed boilers are capable of burning a wide range of fuels cleanly, including biomass fuels such as wood waste.

The current proposal calls for the CFB to be built on the site of the present BPU complex (92 Steele Street). This site is the ideal place for construction, since it is land that the BPU already owns and is adjacent to the Carlson Plant, which will continue to operate and be partially phased out as the new plant becomes fully operational. The use of this site will provide additional efficiencies, since it will enable the BPU to make use of existing coal delivery routes already established by road and rail as well as coal handling facilities and existing cooling towers. District heating and transmission and distribution infrastructures are already in place on this site and can be easily accessed to support the new plant.

The BPU has selected the former Watson Manufacturing site on Harrison Street as the sire to house its new Operations Center. The site is large enough to accommodate BPU corporate offices as well as warehouses, garages and other equipment storage facilities.

The current project cost is estimated to be approximately $145,000.000. That cost included the circulating fluidized bed power plant and all ancillary equipment such as fuel storage and handling systems. The cost estimate also includes the demolition of the existing complex and acquisition and renovation of new offices, warehouse and garage space as discussed previously.

The BPU will finance the cost of the project through the City’s borrowing power by issuing general obligation serial bonds for municipal purposes. Each year, the BPU, through the City, will pay a portion of the costs of principal and interest on the bonds from monies received from the BPU’s operating revenue received from both rate payers and from the sale of power to other purchasers.

By owning the power plant, as opposed to purchasing power on the open market, BPU customers avoid being at the mercy of the unpredictable wholesale electric marketplace. For example, several years ago, electricity prices in California skyrocketed because local utility companies did not own and operate their own power plants and, as such, needed to purchase power from other suppliers at peak prices. The construction of a new plant will also (i) avoid costly expenses to bring the old facility into compliance with new State and Federal environmental regulations and (ii) improve the BPU services to City residents, business and the expanded service area.

Jamestown is attractive for economic development in large part because of its inexpensive utility rates. The utility’s electrical demand has maintained a steady 1% annual growth rate despite slow economic development and the introduction of district heating to the community.

It is most important that each and every customer of the Board of Public Utilities learn to use their electric energy as wisely and as efficiently as possible, reserving electricity to perform only those tasks that electricity can do so that future costly system additions are kept to a minimum.

The Board of Public Utilities remains committed to serving this community’s electrical needs, now and in the future, in a most reliable, economic and environmentally acceptable manner