{"id":113792,"date":"2026-08-30T11:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T11:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/113792\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T11:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T11:00:11","slug":"national-grid-cuts-costs-in-creative-ways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/113792\/","title":{"rendered":"National Grid cuts costs in creative ways"},"content":{"rendered":"

With energy costs increasing across the state, it seems like everyone is looking for ways to save \u2014 even providers. National Grid, which serves millions of customers in upstate New York, is giving a new life to old materials that no longer serve their purpose. It\u2019s a process that not only saves the company money, but can benefit the community in some unique ways too.<\/p>\n

The Haven at Skanda is one of the places that has benefitted from National Grid\u2019s old, unusable materials. Nicole Woodruff, who owns the farm, says donations go a long way in helping the Haven\u2019s purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s to give every animal that comes through our door the best life they can possibly have,\u201d Woodruff said.<\/p>\n

For Woodruff, that means giving them lots of loving, an abundance of dirt and grass to roll around on and plenty of new toys.<\/p>\n

But the animals at the Haven haven\u2019t always had it so easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the animals that we get in are from situations where they\u2019ve been neglected or abused,\u201d Woodruff explained.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A goat enjoys a donated wooden spool from National Grid. (Spectrum News 1\/Natalie Mooney)<\/p>\n

She says the Haven has given them a new lease on life. And a recent donation of several large wooden spools from National Grid helps with that mission. Woodruff says her goats absolutely love them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey sleep on them, they climb all over them, they play on them,\u201d Woodruff said. \u201cSo it\u2019s really nice to have them have that in here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Megan Behm, the manager of National Grid\u2019s Investment Recovery Center, says there\u2019s plenty more where that came from.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re retiring assets on the daily, so we\u2019re receiving in materials constantly,\u201d Behm said. \u201cAfter we\u2019re done with our job, the job isn\u2019t quite over yet, so that\u2019s where my team comes into the mix.\u201d<\/p>\n

They analyze their old and surplus supplies to see if they can be reused or sold, a process that helps the company save money on its projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re able to be creative with continuing to use our assets, continuing to use what we already have, so we\u2019re not having to invest extra,\u201d Behm said.<\/p>\n

By saving on projects, the company is indirectly helping customers save on their bills.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur future projects are not as costly to our customers,\u201d Behm explained.<\/p>\n

\"Wooden<\/p>\n

Wooden spools and wires that have been returned to National Grid’s Investment Recovery Center. (Spectrum News 1\/Natalie Mooney)<\/p>\n

National Grid makes sure it\u2019s getting the most bang for its buck, even old wire gets stripped down to separate copper and aluminum.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe run it through this equipment so that way we can really maximize our profit,\u201d Behm said.<\/p>\n

Anything that can\u2019t be used, stripped or sold gets donated \u2014 like the spools at The Haven.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor National Grid to be so generous and to be so willing and so excited to give us something like this, it\u2019s very meaningful to us,\u201d Woodruff said.<\/p>\n

Just like these spools were given a new life, so were these animals. Woodruff says she\u2019s just happy to see them happy.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir life was awful before coming here, and so to see them actually enjoying life, it\u2019s, you know, gives us purpose,\u201d Woodruff said.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just wire and spools that get processed at National Grid\u2019s Investment Recovery Center, National Grid says they get everything from office furniture to vintage electronics, as well as a wide range of electrical and gas equipment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With energy costs increasing across the state, it seems like everyone is looking for ways to save \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[21249],"tags":[41142,24782,46690,2580,28938,18,34174],"class_list":["post-113792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-national-grid","tag-central-ny","tag-community-news","tag-natalie-mooney","tag-national-grid","tag-new-york-state","tag-news","tag-vod"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117184117480946060","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}