City Council members have approved a new power allocation agreement with New York Power Authority.
The lawmakers voted 3 to 2 to authorize Mayor Robert Restaino to sign on to the agreement that will replace a now-expired pact between the city and NYPA allowing Niagara Falls to receive low-cost hydroelectric power and other economic benefits.
Council Members Vincent Cauley (R) and Bridgette Myles (D) attempted to postpone a vote on the agreement, but that effort failed. Cauley argued that he had not had enough time to “consider” the agreement.
Council Chair Brian Archie (D) and Members James Perry (D) and David Zajac (R) supported the agreement.
The city is one of eight “host communities” of the Robert Moses Power Project, now known as the Niagara Power Project. Host community benefits were established as part of the renewal of NYPA’s operating license by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 2007.
The other host communities are Niagara County, the towns of Lewiston and Niagara, the Tuscarora Nation and the Niagara Falls, Niagara-Wheatfield and Lewiston-Porter school districts. The community agreements last for a term of 18 years and are the same for all participating communities.
The city’s acceptance of the new agreement also binds Niagara Falls School District.
In a memo recommending that the council approve the new power allocation agreement, Restaino wrote that it was the result of “months of painstaking work.” He said the host communities have “secured superior and more equitable replacement agreements” and praised the work of the communities’ negotiator, attorney Edward “Ned” Perlman.
In a meeting with council members prior to their legislative session, Perlman said four of the eight host communities had already OK’d the new agreement.
“Every change that has been made has really benefited the city over the 2007 agreement,” Perlman said.
Under questioning by council members, Perlman said that while the agreement primarily allocates the lowest possible cost electricity to the city, excess power in that allocation could be converted to “some cash.” He said that under the terms of the expired agreement, the city saved $1.591 million on its electricity costs in 2025.
Perlman said the agreement also allows the city to sell unused energy credits “at a profit.”