Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Power - New York Power ...

(with a decrease in nighttime production), offsetting expensive oil-fired generation
anticipated at the time. The combined expansion would have also provided for
an increase in peaking capacity available from the Project.
This original expansion plan was changed when it was determined that
performing an upgrade of the RMNPP units was possible and would be more
economic than an expansion of the RMNPP. It was also recognized that an
upgrade would extend the life of the original 1961 vintage machinery, and
improve the operating efficiency of the equipment. This plan was included in
NYPA’s 1987 FERC filing for a license amendment.
By the early 1990s the forecasts for oil prices had decreased, and it was
recognized that there was little need for peaking capacity in Western New York.
Accordingly, in August 1993, the Authority filed an application with FERC to
remove the LPGP expansion plan from the license. Staff had also determined
that an expansion of LPGP, while feasible, would contribute no additional firm
capacity and would be uneconomic. FERC granted NYPA’s request to remove
the LPGP expansion plan from the license in December 1993.
Mr. Russell devotes much attention to the claimed benefits of the work that was
the subject of the1987 License Amendment, despite this fundamental change to
the Niagara Project Upgrade. By focusing on the supposed “increase in 330
megawatts” of peaking capacity, Mr. Russell (at 13) ignores that the LPGP
upgrade, the source for the increase that was predicted at that time, was later
cancelled. 6
By 1993, when the first of the RMNPP units was disassembled and upgraded,
the overhaul and life extension requirements of the RMNPP units had become
6 Later in his testimony, Mr. Russell (at 14 n.5) acknowledges that the LPGP upgrade was
cancelled, but this does nothing to correct his earlier statements about the expectation of the 330
MW of increased peaking capacity, which was premised on the planned, but later cancelled,
LPGP upgrade.
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