We interviewed Lou Paonessa about the history of hydro-electric power at Niagara Falls and the Robert Moses Niagara Power Project, New York State’s biggest energy producer.
“My name is Lou Paonessa, I work in community relations at the New York Power Authority.
We like to say that this is the birthplace of hydro-electricity here at Niagara Falls: folks like George Westinghouse and Nikolai Tesla, did some of their best work here. Tesla came and saw the immense power and majesty of the falls and right away saw it as a force to be harnessed and a force for good. A lot of it was mechanical energy at that time – spinning water wheels – but Tesla and Edison were able to turn that mechanical energy into electrical energy through their inventions and their ability to transit electricity, which was done from here to Buffalo and really started a world-wide revolution.
This is the Robert Moses Niagara Power Project. It’s really two facilities: we have a pump generating plant that allows us to store water like a battery, at our Lewiston pump generating plant. There’s an international treaty between the United States and Canada that says a certain amount of water has to flow over the falls, because this is a tourist area and we want Niagara Falls to be an important part of tourism for the region. We take what water is available, after allowing water to go over the falls for tourism purposes, and split it equally among this plant and the one on the other side of the river (in Canada); so at night when power demands are low, and water may be more plentiful, we pump it up into the Lewiston reservoir so that we can use it twice during the day time, run it through our pump generators, generating a small amount of power, and then a quarter of a mile down to the main Moses facility where we can generate a large amount of power. This particular facility can generate upwards of ten percent of the power demands of New York State, at any one given time.
We’re here for the economy, to be a backbone of power for the State of New York, as well as this region. One of the main reasons that this power project is here is for jobs; economic development is one of the major features of the mission of the New York Power Authority. We produce low cost, clean energy that will allow businesses to operate here at a lower cost than other places, because hydro-electricity is cheaper than other forms of energy. Also, taking advantage of the wonderful geography – there’s no better place to build a power plant with the Great Lakes supply of clean, fresh water – but also the landscape, the 300 foot drop which helps to create the energy you need to power a 2600 megawatt power facility.
The New York Power Authority, as part of our federal licence, also has certain standards that it has to uphold: as part of our licence to be able to operate this facility, there are recreational and environmental standards that must be met.
One of our recreational projects is the Niagara Power Project; we also have fishing and other facilities available to the public. One of the promises that we made was to offer this Visitor Center; because so many millions of people are coming to Niagara Falls, each and every year, and a lot of people are interested in the power plant, the power dam and how electricity is produced; we decided to make this a top notch attraction to help extend visitors’ stay in the region, and therefore increase tourism for the area, which is all good for the economy of Niagara.
The State of New York has high clean energy goals and we’re going to be a driver of that, not only through our hydro- power production, but through solar, wind and other renewable energies. We want to be a leader in turning around what has been a poor environmental record in this area to make it a strong one.”
Human Accumulations 