By JIMMY LAWTON

MASSENA -- A New York Power Authority spokesman says it’s unlikely NYPA will be compensated for the discount power it has supplied to Alcoa, despite news that Alcoa will renege yet again on its promise to keep jobs in the North Country.

Alcoa announced Monday afternoon it will idle the Massena West smelter, meaning 487 people will lose their jobs, according to Alcoa corporate spokesperson Monica Orbe.

The company will not modernize its closed east plant. The casthouses, forgings and extrusions facilities at Massena's west plant will remain open, according to the company.

NYPA spokesman Steven Gosset said the authority will work with Alcoa and local leaders in St. Lawrence County to mitigate the impact of the closure, but said not many details are available since NYPA was given no advanced warning of the decision.

“In terms of what we do, what the state does, we will be working to figure that out. This happened very suddenly,” he said.

Gosset said it’s unlikely that Alcoa will be held financially accountable for the discount power it has already received.

“It’s highly unlikely, that if the power has already been used, that we will recover money for that power,” NYPA spokesman Steven Gosset said.

This closure is expected to cost 487 jobs, reducing Alcoa’s work force to under 270 employees.

The plant closure will also end a deal struck between Alcoa and NYPA reached in 2014, in which the company promised to maintain 750 jobs at the west plant and provide training for the east plant’s future workforce, once the modernized pot line was installed.

This was already a step back from a 2013 promise from Alcoa to maintain 1,000 jobs at the facility in exchange for the state’s commitment to supply 478 megawatts of low-cost electricity.

For more information, see earlier story.