Power from Water

Approximately 80 to 90 percent of Jamestown’s electricity comes from the Niagara Power Project at the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant and the Lewiston Pump Generating Plant, utilizing water diverted from the Niagara River.

New York Power Authority (NYPA)

A division of NYPA, the Niagara Power Project provides the most electricity in New York State. Its clean hydropower is produced by diverting Niagara River water into two reservoirs. The water is released from the reservoirs and passes through twenty-five combined turbines spun by 748,000 gallons of water per second.

NYPA sells the power to state facilities, to municipal and rural electric cooperatives and to municipally-owned utilities such as Jamestown. Jamestown is one of forty-seven municipal electric systems and four rural electric cooperatives around the state that benefit from the reliable, economical and clean hydropower.

Jamestown and other communities surrounding these major generation facilities in the Niagara Region have long-term power purchase agreements for clean hydropower at favorable rates.

The 2,400,000-Kilowatt Niagara Power Project was the largest hydropower complex in the Western World when it began operating in 1961.