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Development of Authority of the North Country partnering with power authority for fiber plan

Posted 12/24/17

The Development Authority of the North Country (DANC) is partnering with the New York Power Authority (NYPA) on a private network connecting Power Authority equipment and substations. DANC will …

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Development of Authority of the North Country partnering with power authority for fiber plan

Posted

The Development Authority of the North Country (DANC) is partnering with the New York Power Authority (NYPA) on a private network connecting Power Authority equipment and substations.

DANC will provide a 430-mile “dark fiber” line between Utica, Croghan, Massena and Plattsburgh to bolster efficiency and reliability of the statewide public power electric system.

DANC will own and maintain the fiber, and the Power Authority will continue to own its own facilities and equipment.

At its Dec. 14 meeting, DANC’s Board of Directors authorized spending $1.6 million to begin construction of the line. Permitting and engineering will take place over the winter and construction will begin in the spring and be complete by fall 2018.

“This is an outstanding example of two state authorities partnering to improve management and security of the power grid in northern New York,” said DANC Executive Director James W. Wright. “A key focus of the Authority is working with other organizations to implement infrastructure improvements that benefit the North Country.”

“The construction of this dark fiber line is an integral part of the Power Authority’s three-year, multi-phase Communication Backbone Program to improve efficiency and reliability of our statewide electric power system, and supports NYPA’s strategic vision to become the first end-to-end digital utility in the United States,” said Gil C. Quiniones, NYPA president and CEO.

DANC has been partnering with other utilities on closed networks. They have delivered 10 Gbps service to New York State Gas & Electric (NYSEG).

Both of these projects will help the utilities better monitor, control and secure their systems and provides them with the capacity to deploy Smart Grid technology, the press release from DANC says.