Collaboration between the city of Glens Falls, N.Y., Boralex and Northern Power and Light is bringing residents of the city a clean energy option, as well as savings on their monthly energy bills. The Glens Falls Community Hydro Project, completed this past summer, brings renewable, locally sourced power to residents and businesses in the area.

According to Dr. Jeffrey Flagg, economic development director for the city of Glens Falls, Northern Power and Light approached the city in 2022 for the project.

“This is a way for the city of Glens Falls, and to some extent the municipality, but also the city at large to support local green energy assets while lowering our carbon footprint,” Flagg said.

The project, now in operation, designed Glens Falls as the “anchor customer” for the region. This, in turn, also gives residents and businesses the opportunity to enroll in reduced energy costs.

“One of the important things about hydropower, as opposed to solar and wind, is that it’s not so intermittent,” Flagg said. “Hydropower, although it fluctuates based on the seasons, runs all the time. It’s the only real baseload energy.”

According to a press release from Northern Power and Light, the Glens Falls Community Hydro Project sources electricity from the Warrensburg Hydro Facility. The facility is located on the Schroon River and is operated by Boralex.

Boralex is a renewable energy developer, as well as owner and operator; they have sites not just in the United States but also in Canada and Europe. Boralex operates six hydro facilities and 10 solar projects in New York State alone.

The city of Glens Falls will consume approximately 30% of the project’s output power for city hall, streetlights, the water treatment facility and other municipal entities, the press release states.

“Essentially, the way it works (with hydro), the city is getting a 5% discount on our utility bill,” Flagg said. It will reduce the overhead of the operations of the city.

Several Glens Falls businesses have enrolled in the program. Northern Power and Light estimates approximately 300 more customers could be added to the program.

“Under Northern Power and Light’s model, each customer signs up for a ‘share’ of the facility’s output based on the electricity needs,” the press release states.

This is known as Community Distributed Generation. When it comes to CDG, customers experience either no change in costs or can see modest savings.

According to Flagg, CDG has existed for several years now, specifically in solar. It is a program where an individual or a business can — rather than build solar power themselves — subscribe to a solar farm in the region and get credits from the power that’s being generated.

“What we are basically doing is extending that into small-scale hydropower assets,” Flagg said. “The dam cannot be more than 5 megawatts large.”

According to Flagg, a few years ago the state was anxious to see older, out-of-date, privately owned facilities remain viable, resulting in hydropower projects.

Through collaboration with the city of Glens Falls’ Community Development Program, low-income project participants may be eligible for an exclusive 25% discount, the press release states.

The way Glens Falls set up the program is that both residents and small businesses can enroll. However, businesses will not receive a credit but can claim the free energy at no cost to themselves.

“Low- and moderate-income residents can get a 25%  discount (on their energy bill),” Flagg said. Tapping into hydropower furthers Glens Falls’ overall sustainability efforts, which have included developing microgrids for public safety and public health, embarking on an LED streetlight conversion project, crafting a Clean Fleets policy and more.

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