A regional boom in milk production is leading to major investments in factories and dairy farms. And raising concern that there won't be enough electricity available for both.
Similar concern extends to other development — housing, in particular.
“It's an important issue, one that is a foundational issue for the economy of the Finger Lakes region,” said former state Sen. Michael Nozzolio, chairman of LOCATE Finger Lakes.
The nonprofit, which promotes business activities across the region, is organizing a summit on Monday at Hobart & William Smith Colleges in Geneva.
“Site selectors are telling us that they are teeing up prospects for the region,” Nozzolio said, “but one of certainly the fundamental questions are, ‘What is the housing situation? And ... first and foremost, what is the electric grid for our own company, for our own manufacturing facility?'”
Panelists at the forum include New York State Electric and Gas/Rochester Gas & Electric and the area’s top economic development officials, experts on the power grid, elected officials and representatives of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration. The event is open to the public. Registration is required.
“Gov. Hochul has made a push across the state for additional housing ... in all corners of the state” so the workforce has somewhere to live, Nozzolio said. “But the equation is only half there, if you can't find adequate electricity to serve those new houses, to serve those new businesses.”
On Wednesday, Hochul announced the launch of a $300 million state-funded grant program to help pay for needed electrical and transmission infrastructure at industrial sites, aiming to attract investments from the semiconductor, agribusiness and cleantech sectors.
At the time the summit agenda was published, only Republican lawmakers had signed on. But Nozzolio said Democrats were invited, and the aim is to be bipartisan.
Housing and business developments have stalled in recent years, in Brighton and Henrietta, as well as in Canandaigua and Farmington, because the cost developers would have to pay to address inadequate supply or distribution ended up being prohibitively expensive.
“I've heard so many economic developers from throughout the region indicate the same kinds of frustration,” Nozzolio said of the need to modernize an aging power grid.
And when it comes to agribusiness and dairy production, in particular, he said, those concerns spread across rural areas throughout the region.
He pointed to Cayuga County, and a $270 million expansion of the Cayuga Milk Ingredients manufacturing plant there. The plant has enough power, but its the farm and other growth yet to come that has him worried. New York has seen an estimated $3 billion in recent investments in dairy operations, including the $650 million fairlife plant opening in Webster. All that is spurring dairy farmers to expand, adding to an already rising demand for power from datacenters and other developments.
“We're not here to bash the utility companies .... We're not looking to find fault,” he continued. “We're trying to say, what do we need to do in the future? And to raise our voice to make it a priority issue (in Albany).”
