On Thursday, October 24th, LaBella Associates and the Southern Tier 8 Regional Board presented an educational forum as part of the Regional Energy Assessment and Strategy. The event was designed to increase understanding among businesses and municipal officials about energy technologies, government policies and utility practices. The Board was recently awarded funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission to evaluate the energy infrastructure within its eight (8) county re

Brian Houston presented a novel Risk-Based Infrastructure Management approach at the 17th Annual North Carolina American Water Works Association - Water Environment Federation (NC AWWA-WEA) Spring Symposium in Asheville on Monday. The approach he presented, called Capital Efficiency (CapEff for short), uses a customized predictive failure algorithm and monetizes all risks (much like insurers do) to remove and/or clarify subjectivities that are pervasive in widely-accepted poi

The old adage says that Thomas Edison did not fail a thousand times when creating the lightbulb - he instead discovered a thousand ways how not to create a lightbulb. The issue we now face as a country is how to keep the lights on. During the most recent ASCE Report Card, the U.S. energy system scored a D+, stating that “…most electric transmission and distribution lines were constructed in the 1950s and 1960s with a 50-year life expectancy”. According to the same report card

In New York’s Essex County (home of Lake Placid and other Adirondack scenery), the Ray Brook State Office Complex is about to cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than 391 tons a year, roughly the equivalent of taking 80 cars off the road. A new biomass boiler heating loop, designed by LaBella, is now under construction. The system will run on wood pellets, a renewable source of energy created from compressed sawdust. The pellets will be manufactured and sourced in the loc

LaBella’s recently opened Albany office is only one way the firm is active in the region. Our University Heights Microgrid project was recently approved for Phase 2 funding by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) as part of the NY Prize Microgrid competition! The University Heights project is one of 11 projects selected to advance to Phase 2 funding (out of 83 Phase 1 projects). This innovative project seeks to create an independent networ

It's National Engineers Week! Engineer’s week highlights the impact engineers have on our world and these recently completed projects are two great examples. Harford Solar Farm and Musgrave Solar Farm Harford Solar Farm (Dryden, NY) and Musgrave Solar Farm (Aurora, NY) began service at the end of 2016. The farms mark the second and third photovoltaic projects completed with Schuler-Haas Electric for Cornell University. The statistics are impressive: Musgrave generates 4.0 m

LaBella was retained by the City of Ithaca and prime consultant Sasaki Associates for the Ithaca Commons Redesign. LaBella provided both civil and electrical engineering services for underground utilities. The Commons is a pedestrian mall in downtown Ithaca, NY, created during urban renewal in the 1970's. The idea was to create an urban pedestrian shopping experience to compete with the suburban malls and revitalize downtown. The reconstruction was needed because the concret

On December 9, 2015 a new Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) facility went online servicing the Mechanicville, New York, franchise area for New York State Electric & Gas (NYSEG). This CNG facility is the first of its kind for a regulated public utility and is a solution to lift a three-year natural gas service moratorium that affected individual homeowners and also limited development in the City of Mechanicville and portions of the Stillwater and Halfmoon townships. The lifting o

LaBella’s full-service team has the capabilities to develop an energy-efficient Microgrid, designed to meet your needs. Over the last five years, LaBella has provided design services on approximately $53 million in construction - supporting transmission line engineering, substation engineering, automation projects including self-healing smart networks, and maintenance projects. These services are wide ranging from initial planning services, permitting / agency approvals, and

LaBella Associates is providing full service architecture and engineering services in the design of a new indoor distribution substation in Rochester's Mount Hope neighborhood. Station 262 will consist of two 30/40/50 MVA transformers and multiple sections of GIS switchgear. Because of residential neighborhood considerations, the equipment will all be housed in the interior of the building, meaning designers will work within strict noise, fire protection and architectural c