Luther Forest, the Malta technology park that is home to GlobalFoundries, is growing by leaps and bounds, so much so that officials say the power capacity there will need to be doubled.
The power substation built in 2010 will not be able to handle future demands. The problem, according to Dennis Brobston of Saratoga Economic Development Corporation (SEDC), will be finding a way to overcome the hurdles to bring new power where it’s needed. But that is well outweighed by the benefits of the economic boon GlobalFoundries and other companies will bring to the area.
“There is no industry more heavily invested than semiconductors,” said Brobston. “Billions of dollars have already been invested in Luther Forest. Our strategic plan is for these industries because manufacturing gives you a better return on your investment in terms of higher paying jobs and a larger investment into the facilities themselves.”
Brobston said GlobalFoundries bought land in Luther Forest with the understanding that they can put up to three manufacturing buildings on the property, and the company has committed to an investment of $7 billion. In comparison, Brobston said that leading up to the Global Foundries deal, a total of $1.8 billion has been invested by companies in this area.
Brobston said that companies like Global Foundries use a tremendous amount of electricity to manufacture their products, in this case computer chips. When Luther Forest was designed back in the early 2000s, it was expected that a fabrication plant could use anywhere between 40-60 megawatts per plant. One megawatt equals the amount of electricity used by about 1,000 homes. That has changed, though.
“What’s happened, as the industry has progressed, they now use more electricity than they did before,” said Brobston. “One of the big reasons is they’ve grown the size of the wafers used to produce the computer chips. As they continue to get bigger, more power will be needed, because electricity is used as a conductor in the manufacturing process. Now we’re finding that these plants can use at a minimum 120 megawatts per plant, where we thought that would be the high end for all three.”
Brobston said when Luther Forest was built it was assumed the entire, built-out park would use up to 400 megawatts, and planned a substation that would provide that power. But the substation is still not up to that capacity.
“The upgrades that National Grid had to make to make, that in reality are still being done today, they should be completed sometime next year,” Brobston said. “So with GlobalFoundries putting three plants in there, the substation will be at capacity.”
Looking to the future, Luther Forest has the capacity for several more facilities along with their ancillary buildings.
“We’re going to need to grow more power available to Luther Forest. That means doubling the size of the current substation to 800 megawatts,” said Brobston.
The $17 million substation was built with growth in mind. It is big enough, but does not have all the expensive equipment needed. That is only part of the equation, though.
“To expand the substation, you need to bring more power to it,” said Brobston. “It’s not just the equipment, you also have to have the capacity and the lines.”
Power problems are off site
Power comes to the substation from the Mulberry Street substation owned by NYSEG in Mechanicville. The other feed came in from the west from a National Grid Substation at Exit 12 on I-87. There is a transmission corridor that brings power from Rotterdam that extends all the way to Spier Falls in Moreau, where the power is generated. Currently, that corridor has one 115,000-volt transmission line.
In Rennselear County there is a similar line that goes up into Washington County. That line feeds the Mulberry Street station in Mechanicville. That line is also 115,000 volts.
Brobston said the problem is there is only so much capacity on those lines.
“If you need 115,000 volts transmission quality of power for a big manufacturing facility like we do in Luther Forest, it needs big amounts of electricity and that’s the way to get it here,” he said.
Brobston said the way to solve this is to expand the transmission corridor and expand the capabilities of those transmission corridors to include multiple 115,000-volt lines. But that means widening corridors, clearing out trees and expanding easements to accommodate 100-foot setbacks from the lines.
“The issue is it crosses people’s properties, so the easements get very expensive,” said Brobston.
It could take many years to accomplish the expansion, including time to engineer it, get the easements and build it.
“It is a public process the whole way, there are permits required to do this,” said Brobston. “This translates into five years just to approve it and two to three years to build it.”
The bottom line according to Brobston, is a cost of $100-150 million dollars to do an expansion that everyone has an interest in. The state wants to grow jobs and its tax base. The utilities want to sell power and transmit it. The customers want to pay for the power. But in order to get things moving, said Brobston, there will need to be incentives from the state, incentives from National Grid and from NYSEG.
“They will see long-term profit from this,” he said. “They will all need to see this as a priority for our region.”
Brobston said the goal for the next few months is to gather all the facts needed for the expansion, including the creation of 1,900 jobs at Global Foundries, which is an indication of economic growth, and get the information to the state.
“This expansion has to occur to keep job growth in our region,” said Brobston. “You don’t put in these multi-million dollar upgrades and just let it sit.”
