Power-Plant Plan Is New Buzz in Bronx, N.Y., Neighborhood

Power-Plant Plan Is New Buzz in Bronx, N.Y., Neighborhood

By Bill Egbert, Daily News, New York -- April 2

Co-op City's board is electrified by the prospect of a co-generation power plant that could save the state's largest Mitchell-Lama complex millions of dollars a year -- and eventually earn it even more.

"It would mean huge savings for us," said Al Shapiro, president of the Riverbay Board, which runs Co-op City.

Co-op City was rescued from financial meltdown just two months ago when the debt-ridden co-op's board and elected officials hammered out a refinancing deal with the state Housing Finance Agency.

In addition to money for desperately needed repairs, the mammoth $475 million refinancing plan includes $18 million to upgrade Co-op City's steam plant and to install turbines to generate the 25 megawatts that the sprawling, 15,000-unit complex needs.

Assemblyman Stephen Kaufman (D-East Bronx), the driving force behind the state refinancing deal, called the power plant provision a "golden nugget" for the complex.

Going off the grid would do more than make Co-op City immune to blackouts affecting the rest of the city.

Becoming electrically self-sufficient would cut the development's operating costs by $3 million to $5 million annually, Shapiro said.

The 25-megawatt power plant eventually could be upgraded to produce nearly 80 megawatts -- enough to sell power back to the grid for more than $10 million a year, the board president said.

That would take millions of dollars of additional investment, however, leading Shapiro to seek a partner who could put up the money.

"I don't want to risk any of Co-op City's money with this," he said.

"The first [potential partner] to ask us to put out our own money is going to be out the door."

The Riverbay Board is in the early stages of talks with 1st Rochdale, an energy co-operative that includes several co-generating co-ops around the city, about building the 80-megawatt plant.

1st Rochdale was formed in 1997 when Albany deregulated the state's electric utilities.

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