By: Paul J. Gough |
A power transmission line leading to Alcoa Inc.’s Massena, N.Y., facility will be moved to begin a $600 million modernization of the upstate New York facility.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday the New York Power Authority approved the spending of $3.7 million for the power line relocation. Alcoa will get 478 megawatts of hydropower from the New York Power Authority’s St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt Hydroelectric Plant over 30 years beginning Jan. 1. Alcoa will build a substation for the power to go to its potline at the Massena plant.
“The transmission line relocation is essential for the next phase of the modernization upgrades at the Massena East plant,” Bob Lenney, Alcoa East plant manager, said in a prepared statement. “The relocation of the power lines several hundred feet to the south of their current site location is necessary for our installation of a new transmission substation for feeding electricity to a new aluminum production potline.”
The work is to begin in June and last through November.
“This transmission line relocation is critical to Alcoa’s much anticipated modernization of the Massena East smelter and reflects the unwavering support of the state of New York to secure the long-term future of aluminum production in the North Country,” Cuomo said in a prepared statement. “There may be no more important development for the region’s economy than the overhaul and upgrade of the Massena East smelter, for which work will get under way this summer.”
