Invest locally … in wind
Why not invest in renewable energy projects in the Hudson Valley?
That is the question that the chairman of the state Assembly energy committee is asking these days, saying that Central Hudson is missing a major opportunity.
Questions arose after utility officials announced earlier this month that CH Shirley Wind L.L.C., a wholly owned subsidiary of Central Hudson Enterprises Corp. (CHEC) plans to invest approximately $50 million in a 20-megawatt wind farm facility in Glenmore, Wisconsin.
The company cites a case for apples and oranges, saying regional electricity and the Wisconsin project have no relationship financially.
“I asked myself that question,” said Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, chairman of the Assembly energy committee. He said Central Hudson”™s failure to use its subsidiaries to invest in renewable power locally “is them missing a big opportunity.”
“Remember with deregulation we have a different business organization than we had in the past,” said John Maserjian, a spokesman for Central Hudson. He said that CH Enterprises is separate from Central Hudson Gas and Electric, a regulated utility that is not allowed under state law to serve as both the generating source of electricity and also serve as the distribution network that speeds the power to where it is needed.
Currently Central Hudson bills have two figures, one paid to Central Hudson for the use of its wires and substations, and one that pays for the electricity that Central Hudson sends across its network after purchasing power on the energy market operated by New York”™s Independent System Operator.
Â
Maserjian said CH Shirley Wind and Central Hudson Gas and Electric “are operationally unrelated, there is no cross subsidization of the two. For example, any revenue earned by the utility would not be bused to support CH Shirley and vice versa. They really operate as two separate entities.”
Â
Cahill said that is exactly his point. He said that while the utility Central Hudson and Gas cannot currently own a generation source for its own distribution system, there is nothing that would prevent Central Hudson Energy Group, the overarching corporation that owns the utility and Shirley Wind and other entities, from investing in renewable energy projects in New York state and selling the power on the grid.
Â
“A wholly owned subsidiary is not a utility,” said Cahill. “There is nothing barring Central Hudson Energy Group from investing in and owning its own power sources here. The bar, if it can be considered one, is that they can”™t own a power source and sell power directly to their own customers, They would have to sell it to the grid on the power market.”
Cahill said besides solar farms and wind power, a potentially lucrative developing opportunity is restoration of small scale hydro-electric power facilities that are sitting unused around the state. He said that restoration of these facilities would provide a cumulative 1,200 megawatts of power. By way of comparison, the Indian Point nuclear energy facility operated by Entergy provides 2,000 mw if operating at full power. One megawatt is enough to power about 800 homes.
Central Hudson has expertise in hydropower. Through a special agreement with the state the utility is allowed to own and operate three small hydropower plants in Ulster County.
Cahill said officials hope to make the whole matter of subsidiary ownership moot in the coming legislative session by passing legislation that would encourage and perhaps even require the state”™s utilities own and operate power generated by renewable energy systems such as solar farms and wind power facilities.
The proposal is strongly supported by officials at Central Hudson, said Maserjian. “If that were to be approved we are interested in developing renewable generation facilities here in the Hudson Valley,” said Maserjian.