❄ ❄ ❆ ❄ ❆ HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!
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Co-op City’s official newspaper serving the world’s largest cooperative community. © Copyright 2010 Co-op City Times
Vol. 45 No. 51
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Monthly cogeneration savings hits record in November BY JIM ROBERTS Shareholders saved nearly $2 million in energy costs last month, thanks to the Co-op City cogeneration plant, the highest monthly savings total that cogeneration has produced so far. Riverbay paid $1,951,654 less in energy bills in November than budgeted because the cogeneration plant is now producing nearly 100% of all the electricity used in Co-op City. Since the cogeneration plant came online, Co-op City residents have saved a total of $18,414,164 in money that would have been paid to Con Edison for electricity. The savings have allowed the many ongoing capital projects here to continue forward. In November, the projected Con Edison bill was estimated at $2,436,386, while the actual bill will come in around $300,000. The gas bill for other than cogen gas was estimated at $1,326,770 and came in at $739,691. An additional $771,811 was spent to pay for gas used in cogeneration, resulting in monthly savings for November of $1,951,654.
Riverbay’s energy savings is calculated from three different categories: electricity purchased from Con Edison; gas purchased to operate the boilers and gas purchased for the cogeneration plant. Co-op City’s 55,000 residents draw between 12.5 megawatts of energy usage during off-peak hours - between midnight and 4 a.m. - and 24 megawatts during peak hours, 7 p.m. and 10 p.m., when a majority of the shareholders are home. Over the past five years, the shareholders of Co-op City have invested some $76 million in the 40-plus-year-old Power Plant to upgrade and modernize equipment and build an energy efficient 40megawatt cogeneration plant. With the community only needing 24 megawatts of power at peak usage periods, the extra capacity provides redundancy in case of equipment failure, as well as the ability to sell the excess capacity providing a new income stream. The Co-op City cogeneration plant is also connected to ConEd’s grid which allows it to run parallel to the system, and also buy and sell electricity as needed.
2010: The Year in Review January to June
(The following is an account of the major events occurring in or affecting Co-op City during the first six months of 2010 as reported by the Co-op City Times. Next week’s issue will feature an account of the second half of 2010.) BY BILL STUTTIG January: In a sign of things to come in 2010, Riverbay announced that the yet to be fully completed co-generation facility, operating at 30% capacity in the final months of 2009, produced more than $4 million in energy savings for the cooperators in 2009. By the end of 2010, energy savings would increase to an average of approximately $1.6 million per month. 2010 began with Riverbay honoring 37 building porters and their supervisors for going above and beyond the call of duty in keeping their assigned buildings as clean as possible. Judging began in December under the leadership of General Manager Vernon Cooper and various department heads who stressed areas of building maintenance that are often overlooked but go a long way in determining buildings are as clean and well-maintained as possible. The winning porters were given awards and a cash bonus for their efforts.
In early January, two garage attendants were recognized for their attention to duty which resulted in thwarting two potential crimes. In the first, a garage attendant noticed someone attempting to drive a vehicle he knew belonged to someone else from the garage. The attendant blocked the exit of the vehicle from the garage and called Public Safety to investigate. In a second incident, an attendant noticed a driver smelling of alcohol attempting to leave a garage. He advised the driver to not exit the garage, but pull the vehicle safely into a spot and leave the garage on foot. The driver complied and reportedly returned to his home on foot where he could not endanger the lives of others. After a devastating earthquake struck Haiti on January 12th, the community responded with numerous drives for funds and supplies in the weeks that followed, culminating with a fundraising concert held on February (Continued on page 3)
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Holiday Reflections As we celebrate good news to report President’s Message Christmas and in the next few Kwanzaa this weekmonths. end with family, Thanks to savPresident neighbors and ings from cogenerfriends, and look ation, which now forward to the New Year, I think this is totals $18.4 million, we have been able an appropriate time to reflect on some of to continue the window replacement the positive things that we have accom- program although not at the rate we plished during the past year as a com- would have liked. Exorbitant increases munity here in Co-op City. in water and sewer charges by the city This year, we began to realize signif- have resulted in additional expenses to icant energy savings due to the building the corporation and that is why it is of our historic cogeneration plant. These important for each of us to do our indisavings have been averaging around vidual share to ensure that we conserve $1.6 million per month which has energy and water. The more we conallowed us to continue our capital proj- serve, the less we have to pay in our utilects while we explore our refinancing ity bills and savings for the corporation, options to take advantage of lower inter- results in savings to us, the cooperators. est rates. Although we have made a lot In addition to conserving on an of progress in this very lengthy process, (Continued on page 2) we remain hopeful that we will have
Helen Atkins
Early deadline notice Riverbay’s administrative offices will be closed on Friday, December 31st in observance of the New Year’s holidays. Once again, because of the holiday shortened work week, all community organizations must submit their club articles before 8 a.m. on Monday, December 27. Material submitted after this time will not be considered for publication in the Saturday, January 1, 2011 issue of the Co-op City Times. Directors’ viewpoints must also be submitted by 8 a.m. on Monday, December 27, to be considered for publication in the January 1, 2011 issue of the Co-op City Times. Please note that the regular business hours of the Co-op City Times are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each weekday. Material for publication may be emailed to cctimes@riverbaycorp.com; faxed to (718) 320-2595 or slipped under the office door at 2049 Bartow Avenue, Rm. 21. The Coop City Times will be delivered, as usual, on Saturday, January 1, 2011. Although the administrative offices will be closed on Friday, December 31, shareholders may contact their local CSO for services and the Co-op City Public Safety Department at (718) 671-3050, and 9-1-1 with emergencies. We wish our readers a Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa and a Prosperous New Year.
Holiday Cheer … Dorothea Castle, President of the Building 15A Association, shows off some of the beautiful holiday decorations that adorn her building’s lobby each year, thanks to her hard work and that of her neighbors. Castle said, “Each year, the decorations just get bigger and better thanks to the generous contributions of my many Building 15A neighbors.” Aside from her, Castle credits Building 15A residents Robbin Vails, Michael Robinson, Andre Peterson, Carmen Molina, Philip Hernandez, Gabrielle Federowicz, and Alicia Diaz with the beautiful lobby-wide display, which celebrates Christmas, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah.