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Contingency planning

Posted 1/31/12

My hydropower critic (“Need to Sell Hydropower,” Sound Off, Jan. 25-31) was obviously not here during the ice storm or he would have understood what I was saying. What happened was this. …

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Contingency planning

Posted

My hydropower critic (“Need to Sell Hydropower,” Sound Off, Jan. 25-31) was obviously not here during the ice storm or he would have understood what I was saying. What happened was this. Niagara-Mohawk shut down the power grid and stopped buying power from Potsdam. The Potsdam hydro plant shut down its generators because the contract only allowed the Village to sell its power to M-H. There was no income from hydro power nor was there any electricity for the residents of the village. I am proposing that, in a similar emergency Potsdam have the right, by contract with National Grid to use its own hydro power for the village residents. Potsdam would be selling the power to National Grid and gain revenue. The residents of the Village would have electricity. I know that Village officials understand what I have proposed. The present cost to the Village would be the engineering changes to restrict power to the Village, new transformers, cutoff switches, etc. at the Village boundaries. This is termed contingency planning.