New York Power Authority

Niagara Power Project: Reported Revenues and Disbursements

The New York Power Authority (NYPA) provides about a quarter of the electricity used in New York State, selling electricity to investor-owned utilities, large industrial customers, and government agencies in the New York City area. A significant portion of this electricity is produced by a hydropower plant located on the Niagara River (the Niagara Power Project). We audited NYPA’s financial records for this power plant, and in particular, the controls over NYPA’s financial reporting of the plant’s revenues and disbursements, for the two years ended December 31, 2005. We found that this information was accurately reported in internal NYPA documents, but was not fully disclosed in public reports, because the information was combined and aggregated with revenue and disbursement information from NYPA’s other power plants. We noted that, in the two years we reviewed, this power plant appeared to be far more cost-effective than most other NYPA operations. For example, in 2005, the plant’s revenue exceeded its expenses by almost $166 million; in comparison, in that same year, NYPA reported total net revenues of only $58.5 million. We recommended NYPA present revenue and expense information for each power plant in its future public annual reports.

For a complete copy of Report 2006-S-10 click here.
For a copy of the 90-day response click here.