First woman to lead NYPA’s hydroelectric Niagara Power Project talks transformative plans

With the number of clean energy jobs projected to increase to nearly 29 million by 2050, the move to a majority renewables grid offers an unprecedented, economy-wide opportunity to build momentum around the social benefits promised by a clean energy transition.

Companies have caught on, and are increasingly adopting a gender-focused perspective to ensure that women’s contributions are represented as an integral part of the growing clean energy industry. Recent studies reveal that greater gender diversity in the workplace brings substantial co-benefits like improved collaboration, and yields markedly better performance overall.

The New York Power Authority (NYPA) is counting on it, with the recent appointment of the first woman to head the utility's Niagara Power Project in its 60-year history. Daniella Piper, who will head operations at the facility in her new role as Regional Manager of Western New York, fills the top position at NYPA’s flagship hydroelectric project in Lewiston. The plant is the largest source of clean electricity in New York State and one of the country's largest hydroelectric facilities, providing up to 2.6 million kW of clean electricity.

Previously serving as Chief of Staff for NYPA President and CEO Gil Quiniones, as well as Vice President of NYPA’s Digital Transformation Office, Piper's new role is seen as a way to better align the agency’s statewide generation and transmission operations with its recently released VISION2030, an ambitious 10-year plan that preserves the value of hydroelectric generation to support the state’s transition to a cleaner, more resilient grid.

Piper will also take on the role of NYPA’s Chief Transformation Officer, bringing her experience in leading NYPA’s digital transformation efforts to various enterprise-wide initiatives, including NYPA’s recently adopted 10-Point Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Roadmap (DE&I).

“The power industry is still a very male-dominated field, but I believe that it is changing and that there is a bright future for women in this field, particularly at NYPA,” Piper told NPM. “As part of NYPA’s new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Plan, we’re committed to ensuring that when we are interviewing to fill a position, we’ve made every effort to have a diverse pool of qualified candidates. The energy industry is changing rapidly, and to achieve the grid of the future we need diverse talent and innovators. I believe there are many opportunities currently for women in the energy field, and there will be many more opportunities for women to take on leadership roles that will shape our future as the industry transforms.”

Piper was integral to the development of NYPA’s DE&I plan, which operates under the framework of 10 guiding principles, including training employees on antiracism and unconscious bias; STEM education; securing a diverse workforce by partnering with organizations like the American Association of Blacks in Energy and historically Black colleges and universities; and supplier diversity.

Previously leading NYPA's digital transformation on its way to becoming the first fully digitized public utility in the country, Piper will now leverage this experience to inform her new expanded responsibilities.

“I have seen first-hand how technology can help us to work safely and efficiently, enhancing collaboration, decision-making and learning,” she said. “NYPA’s Integrated Smart Operations Center allows us to harness the power of sensor data, analytics and artificial intelligence to detect anomalies and prevent equipment failures. In 2020, Cloud applications, the right hardware, and talent allowed our teams to transition seamlessly to a remote working environment at the beginning of the COVID pandemic and throughout the past year.”

The Opening of the Niagara courtesy of NYPA

Niagara Power Project

The Niagara Power Project, comprised of two plants incorporating a combined 25 turbines spun by 748,000 gallons of water per second, is located just 4.5 miles downstream from Niagara Falls. The project uses a gated tunnel under the City of Niagara to divert water from the Niagara River into two reservoirs, with power generated via the release of the water from the reservoirs. This power is sold to state facilities, municipal and rural electric coops, and large utilities.

When the plant produced its first power in 1961, it was the largest hydropower facility in the Western world, referred to by President John F. Kennedy as "an example to the world of North American efficiency and determination."

In 2019, NYPA launched a 15-year modernization and digitization program to significantly extend the operating life of the Niagara Power Project. The life extension and modernization program, called "Next Generation Niagara," centers on the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant, the Niagara Project's main generating facility. NYPA plans to invest USD 1.1bn in the project, making it one of the most ambitious infrastructure endeavors in the state. Improvements will include replacing aging equipment with the latest machinery reflecting advanced digital technologies for optimizing the hydroelectric project's performance.

The initiative will help secure the facility's long-term future as a clean power generator that spurs economic development in Western New York and across the state through its low-cost power allocation programs. Through these programs, the hydroelectric facility directly supports more than 200,000 jobs and USD 17bn in capital investments. Next Generation Niagara will support an additional 60 union construction jobs over the course of the project.

“With the Next Generation Niagara modernization and digitization project, the Power Authority is embarking on an ambitious undertaking by transforming a 1960s-era power plant and digitizing its systems so that the plant will continue to be an economic force for the region and for the state for the next 50 years and beyond,” Piper said. “With my digital transformation experience to date, I’m in a great position to guide that process along.”

Piper will initially prioritize workforce engagement, providing the necessary resources and support to maintain and operate the plant efficiently in support of the state's energy needs.

Over the longer term, Piper will focus her attention on the first strategic priority of VISION2030, which calls for enhancing the value of NYPA’s hydropower assets as a core source of carbon-free power as the state’s energy grid evolves.

“That includes ensuring that as we undertake Next Generation Niagara to digitize and modernize our generation equipment, we leverage the tremendous amount of asset data available to gain insights and optimize our assets,” she said. “While doing so, I will strive to foster an environment that embraces diversity and inclusion so that every individual working in our plant and on the project feels like they belong, and can reach their full potential.”

Piper also hopes to see innovation around energy management systems, as well as the deployment of more distributed energy resources, which she says is critical to managing the state's future grid.

“At NYPA, we are also carefully studying our hydro units, which provide flexibility to the grid,” she said. “These assets are subject to a much wider range of operation in a short window of time to meet the changing needs of the grid. We need to understand the impact of this shift on the life of the asset, and ultimately the cost to maintain them for continued reliability.”