National Grid Planning Upgrades
By David Robinson – BUFFALO NEWS BUSINESS REPORTER - 6/11/09
National Grid plans to spend an additional $1 billion over the next five years to upgrade its electricity transmission system in upstate New York, the utility said Wednesday.
The improvements, which are in addition to another five-year $1.5 billion transmission system upgrade project that began in 2006, said Patrick Stella, a National Grid spokesman.
The system upgrade announced Wednesday is expected to create as many as 500 new jobs across upstate New York, from engineers to the workers installing the new power lines and equipment.
Some of that work will be done in Western New York, Stella said. But just how much of that work, and how many of those jobs, will be located in Western New York isn’t known yet because the specific project list and its timetable has not been completed. Work on the first projects is expected to begin within a few weeks.
National Grid has signed a contract with the NorthEast Power Alliance to do part of the upgrade work. The alliance is a joint venture between consulting and engineering services firm AMEC, R. G. Vanderweil Engineers and contractor Michaels Corp. National Grid also will hire additional workers on a per-project basis, Stella said.
National Grid owns more than 8,600 miles of electricity transmission lines and about 1,000 substations across upstate New York and New England. Much of that infrastructure is aging and in need of replacement to improve the system’s reliability. Other portions of the transmission system need upgrades to handle additional electricity demands, Stella said.
National Grid has been fined repeatedly by the state Public Service Commission in the mid- 2000s for having too many power outages that lasted too long.
drobinson@buffnews.com
Leave a Reply