Richmondville Discusses Possible New School Bus Garage Power

RICHMONDVILLE — The ins and outs of possibly having Richmondville Power & Light provide electricity for a new Cobleskill-Richmondville school bus garage was the subject of a special Village of Richmondville board meeting on Thursday morning, Sept. 19.

Attending the meeting and advising village Mayor Carl Warner Jr. and Trustees Garry Davis, Robert Hyatt and Milan Jackson on the matter were General Manager-Executive Director Jim Stokes and Counsel Ken Podolny of the New York Municipal Power Agency. Richmondville Power & Light purchases supplemental electricity and has other dealings with NYMPA.

Davis emphasized early on that the Cobleskill-Richmondville School District does not have a specific bus garage proposal in that district officials have not selected a site or ironed out a lot of other details. However, it's generally well known that the district needs a new bus garage and the need has been accentuated by New York State directives to have school districts purchase strictly electric buses starting in 2027 and have all emission free (electric) fleets by 2035.

Any new bus garage would likely include charging stations and could also be heated by electricity, Strokes pointed out.

"They (school district officials) are out selecting sites and the one eventually picked could fall within our franchise (service) area," Davis said. "This is an informational meeting. We're trying to get ahead of this in case the site selected falls within our franchise area."

Richmondville Power & Light's service area includes all of the village, two-thirds of the Town of Richmondville and most of Warnerville. Two of the three Cobleskill-Richmondville school campuses _ Radez Elementary School and the high school _ are already serviced by Richmondville Power & Light.

Stokes and Podolny said that if the Richmondville power company ends up providing service to the new bus garage, it would need to upgrade is current 5MW capacity system because the bus garage itself would carry a 2MW load. The cost for upgrades needed to accommodate the new school bus garage could be passed along to the school district, either up front or reflected in the rate charged CR, the two NYMPA representatives said.

"Your existing system needs to be upgraded anyway," regardless of the possible addition of the bus garage, Strokes pointed out. "But I would like you to view it (possible addition of garage) as an opportunity and a challenge, not as a problem. As a NYMPA member, we want you to succeed and to grow.

"Electrification is the stated goal and law in New York State. I think that's reasonable. I'm reasonably confident it will occur, to one extent or another. The timing might change."

Referring to the electric school bus and other mandates issued by the state, Podolny added that they often become fluid.

"They can mandate all they want but that doesn't necessarily mean it will happen," he said. "If I had to bet, I would guess that the mandate of purchasing only electric buses will not happen by 2027."

A study of upgrades needed to the Richmondville Power & Light system could be funded from a pool of $3 million in grant money available from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, Strokes and Podolny said. The maximum available to any one entity is $200,000.

"The sooner the better," Stokes said of Richmondville applying for the grant. "It will be first come, first served."

Also touched on at the special meeting is the village's upcoming rate case to the state Public Service Commission for a possible hike in Richmondville Power & Light rates, something that has not occurred in well over a decade, officials at the meeting said.