News Blog

Thursday is the deadline for Rochester Gas and Electric and the owner of the Ginna nuclear plant to file an electricity purchase contract.

RG&E and Ginna are negotiating an agreement for the utility to purchase electricity from the plant on an as-needed basis, but at prices likely above the market rate. In late November, the Public Service Commission ordered RG&E to negotiate the contract with Ginna.

The nuclear plant’s owner requested the contract in a filing with the PSC. The plant hasn’t been able to sell its electricity at a high enough price and over the past three years has lost more than $100 million dollars.

The owner, a subsidiary of power generation giant Exelon, said it’d move to retire the plant without a purchase agreement with RG&E. Shutting down the plant could threaten the reliability of Rochester’s power supply, the company said.

It’s unclear what the contract will cost RG&E customers, since neither the utility nor Exelon has offered any clues in their filings. But a pro-renewables, anti-nuclear power group, Alliance for a Green Economy, has estimated that the deal could cost RG&E customers an additional $80 million a year, or about $216 per ratepayer.

In a filing just before Christmas, RG&E said it had found a transmission project that would shorten the duration of the temporary contract and allow Ginna to retire. Basically, the project would involve upgrades to two existing substations.

A list of filings in the case is available here. BY JEREMY MOULE


Administrators with the city’s Department of Neighborhood and Business Development will host four community meetings this month for the public and others in the development of a five-year strategy for the City's Consolidated Plan, which guides the use of federal funds from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The meeting schedule is:
• Southwest: 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, January 14, Southwest Neighborhood Service Center, 923 Genesee Street;
• Northeast: 10 a.m. Tuesday, January 20, Northeast Neighborhood Service Center, 500 Norton Street;
• Southeast: 6 p.m. Tuesday, January 20, Ryan Community Center, 530 Webster Avenue;
• Northwest: 6 p.m. Thursday, January 22, Edgerton R-Center, Stardust Ballroom, 41 Backus Street.


Twenty-First Century Arts produces Entrepreneurship in the Arts: A Call to Action in ROC on January 14 at the Sibley building, 25 Franklin Street in downtown Rochester. This free summit runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Registration is required and attendance is limited to 150 registrants. To register: http://21stcenturyarts.net.

The symposium will address the imperative for the arts and cultural sector in Greater Rochester to become more entrepreneurial — to achieve greater sustainability and relevance. And it will explore how arts and culture can work more effectively and intentionally with other business sectors, most notably real estate developers, to build a more vital community.


The City of Rochester will hold two fair housing forums on Thursday, January 15. The first is from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., and the second is from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The forums will be held in the Kate Gleason Auditorium in the Central Library (B&L building), 114 South Avenue.

The city is doing a study to evaluate fair housing issues in Rochester. The study’s preliminary findings will be discussed at the forums. Participants can also offer suggestions to eliminate impediments to fair housing, and help identify ways to work with city officials to ensure fair housing. BY CHRISTINE CARRIE FIEN