CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

Paul D. Tonko, NYSERDA President and CEO said: “The projects will be conducted over the coming years by nationally recognized, top-level researchers, engineers, corporations, universities and utilities here in New York. These investments will help us meet Governor Spitzer’s goal to reduce electric demand by 15 percent by 2015, strengthen the reliability of the New York grid and have the potential to benefit electric customers around the world.”

The fifth largest single project, with New York State Electric & Gas is unique to the Finger Lakes Region and is valued at $373,923. At U.S. Salt Corp’s Watkins Glen facility, an engineering study for a Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) facility will be undertaken to determine if underground salt caverns can be filled with compressed air for later discharge to drive electric-generating turbines. This process would pump air into the cavern during low-cost, off-peak hours, to about 1000 psig and store it there until it was needed to replacing natural gas- fueled turbines during peak-demand periods.

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