Plastic injection molding and extrusion. Food processing. Steel processing and fabrication.
Any idea what they have in common? They use power in a distinctly robust (read: heavy) way. Utility costs and energy needs are a hot topic for companies on both sides of the US/Canadian border. And as Canadian companies consider US expansion for several reasons (like made in USA requirements, supply chain considerations, and to avoid delays at border crossings), power savings in Buffalo Niagara sweeten the deal.
It’s one of the reasons that, whenever the Invest Buffalo Niagara team works through the due diligence process with a prospect considering our market, we put energy needs and consumption on the table as a key topic of discussion. When a prospect is a heavy energy user in Canada, we run a comparison between monthly costs there versus in Buffalo Niagara. Most of the time, there are significant savings available.
Let’s put it into real-world terms: we recently worked with a plastics company paying $0.13 per kWh for power in Canada. On this side of the border, that same operation’s cost would drop to $0.082 per kWh—a savings of over $18,000 each month. The savings stand across companies and industries, from a different plastics company potentially reducing costs by $20,000 monthly, to a food processing company that was looking at a drop from $0.19/kWh in Canada to $0.083/kWh in Buffalo Niagara for a savings of $50,000 per month.
There are also special incentive programs that can reduce power costs even further, depending on location, the number of jobs that will be created, and how much investment will go into a new facility. Taken together, they’re perks that shouldn’t be overlooked in considering expansion to the US side and the Buffalo Niagara.
