The Northport Power Station, known as “The Stacks” by locals, the largest power generation facility on
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
. It is a
natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
and
conventional oil
Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude ...
electric power generating station located on the
North Shore of Long Island in
Fort Salonga, New York
Fort Salonga is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Towns of Huntington and Smithtown in Suffolk County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 10,008 at the 2010 census.
The hamlet is ...
. The facility was built by the
Long Island Lighting Company
The Long Island Lighting Company, or LILCO "lil-co" was an electrical power company and natural gas utility for the communities of Long Island, New York, serving 2.7 million people in Nassau, Suffolk and Queens Counties.[ ...]
(LILCO) in stages between 1967 and 1977,
and since August 2007 it has been owned and operated by
National Grid USA
National Grid plc is a British multinational electricity and gas utility company headquartered in London, England. Its principal activities are in the United Kingdom, where it owns and operates electricity and natural gas transmission networks ...
.
The plant's electric output is distributed by
Long Island Power Authority
Long Island Power Authority (LIPA, "lie-pah") is a municipal subdivision of the State of New York that owns the electric transmission and electric distribution system serving all of Long Island and a portion of New York City known as the Rocka ...
(LIPA).
In 2010,
National Grid filed a lawsuit against the
Town of Huntington to challenge the station's property tax levy, which at $80 million made it the most taxed building in the United States.
In September 2020, a settlement for a tax reduction on the facility was reached.
Description
Northport Power Station is the largest power generation facility on
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
. As of 2021, Northport Power Station consists of four
steam turbine
A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...
units with a
nameplate capacity
Nameplate capacity, also known as the rated capacity, nominal capacity, installed capacity, or maximum effect, is the intended full-load sustained output of a facility such as a power station, of 387.0 MW each, as well as one
gas turbine
A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directi ...
unit with a nameplate capacity of 16.0 MW, for a total of 1564 MW.
In 2020, the steam turbine units together generated 2950.6
GWh
A kilowatt-hour (unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a unit of energy: one kilowatt of power for one hour. In terms of SI derived units with special names, it equals 3.6 megajoules (MJ). Kilowatt-hours are a common bil ...
of energy, which was about 29% of all locally generated power on Long Island that year, while the gas turbine unit was unused. All units are primarily fueled by
natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
, although the steam units have the capability to burn
fuel oil
Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil, marine fuel oil (MFO), bun ...
as well.
The four enormous
smoke stacks are a defining landmark of Northport and can be seen from up to 36 miles away atop
East Rock
East Rock of south-central Connecticut, United States, with a high point of , is a long trap rock ridge located primarily in the neighborhood of East Rock on the north side of the city of New Haven. A prominent landscape feature and a popular ...
in
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...
, across
Long Island Sound
Long Island Sound is a marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York to the south. From west to east, the sound stretches from the Eas ...
.
At , they are among the
tallest structures on Long Island.
The facility is the Long Island connection point for the
Northport–Norwalk Harbor Cable. The
Iroquois Pipeline Iroquois Gas Transmission System (also known as the Iroquois Pipeline) is a natural gas pipeline that brings gas from eastern Canada to the New York City area.
Ownership
The Iroquois pipeline is owned by TransCanada Corporation, Dominion Resource ...
also passes through the site.
Early history
![Old_Northport_Power_Station_1925](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Old_Northport_Power_Station_1925.webp)
The Northport Electric Light Company was established in 1893, and its original plant began operating in 1895 at the waterfront near the foot of Main Street. In 1911, the power plant and three others across Long Island were consolidated into the new
Long Island Lighting Company
The Long Island Lighting Company, or LILCO "lil-co" was an electrical power company and natural gas utility for the communities of Long Island, New York, serving 2.7 million people in Nassau, Suffolk and Queens Counties.[ ...]
(LILCO). A new 500 kW turbine was installed at the power station later in 1911, which was upgraded to 1000 kW in 1928. The original plant was demolished in 1968 as the new plant began operations.
Planning for the current station began in 1957. The new site had previously been used for sand mining, and a channel had already been dredged alongside it for sand barges. At the same time, the longest underwater electric transmission line in the United States was built under
Long Island Sound
Long Island Sound is a marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York to the south. From west to east, the sound stretches from the Eas ...
to
Norwalk, Connecticut
, image_map = Fairfield County Connecticut incorporated and unincorporated areas Norwalk highlighted.svg
, mapsize = 230px
, map_caption = Location in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Fairfield County and ...
. The first unit of the new plant began operating in 1968.
By the time Unit 4 was completed in 1977,
it was among the last conventional oil fired-units built in the United States.
The
Northport–Norwalk Harbor Cable began operation in 1969.
The cable was completely replaced with a modern cable system in 2008.
In 1998, as part of a state-brokered deal, LILCO's power generation facilities, including Northport Power Station, were absorbed into
KeySpan Energy
KeySpan Corporation was the fifth largest distributor of natural gas in the United States. KeySpan was formed in 1998 as a result of the merger of Brooklyn Union Gas Company (founded 1895 by merging several smaller companies) and Long Island Light ...
, with the public
Long Island Power Authority
Long Island Power Authority (LIPA, "lie-pah") is a municipal subdivision of the State of New York that owns the electric transmission and electric distribution system serving all of Long Island and a portion of New York City known as the Rocka ...
(LIPA) taking over transmission and delivery functions. KeySpan was acquired by
National Grid in 2007.
Age and pollution
In 2005, a coalition of New York environmental groups issued a report which named the Northport Power Station as the number one polluting plant on Long Island and the second most polluting plant in the Northeast. The plant outputs 5.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide every year.
The reason for these concerns primarily lay with the age of the power plant, being constructed in the 1960s and 1970s.
The plant is exempt from
Clean Air Act emissions standards because it was
grandfathered
A grandfather clause, also known as grandfather policy, grandfathering, or grandfathered in, is a provision in which an old rule continues to apply to some existing situations while a new rule will apply to all future cases. Those exempt from t ...
in when the law was passed.
As a result of pollution and health concerns,
United States Senator
The United States Senate is the Upper house, upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives being the Lower house, lower chamber. Together they compose the national Bica ...
Charles E. Schumer
Charles Ellis Schumer ( ; born November 23, 1950) is an American politician serving as Senate Majority Leader since January 20, 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Schumer is in his fourth Senate term, having held his seat since 1999, and ...
and
Suffolk County Legislator
Jon Cooper have been calling for
modernizing the inefficient Northport Power Station.
The Northport Power Station has undergone a gradual decline in its annual energy production, from 55.8 percent of plant capacity in 2005 to 15.2 percent last year (2019). That decline is expected to continue to 2.9 percent of plant capacity by 2035.
Tax settlement
![Vanderbilt Museum 2018 047](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Vanderbilt_Museum_2018_047.jpg)
In 2010, LIPA teamed with National Grid to file a lawsuit against the
Town of Huntington alleging that the building was too overvalued and that National Grid was paying too much taxes on the building. The judges ruled that LIPA did not have the right to be a
plaintiff
A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of the p ...
in the case because the building was owned by National Grid, affirmative to a later 2015
New York Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...
appeal, which had the same outcome. LIPA continued the legal battle however, and the Town of Huntington attorney
Nicholas Ciappetta agreed resolve the dispute through
mediation
Mediation is a structured, interactive process where an impartial third party neutral assists disputing parties in resolving conflict through the use of specialized communication and negotiation techniques. All participants in mediation are ...
to begin a trial. The lawsuit has sparked protests among residents of Huntington, with concerns of property taxes and school taxes rising.
LILCO had initialed challenges against several plants including Northport in the early 1990s, but these were dropped in 2004 after they had been inherited by LIPA. LIPA reinstated these challenges in 2010. The
Town of Huntington,
Port Jefferson School District, and
Northport-East Northport School District sued LIPA on the basis that in a claimed 1997 agreement with then-Governor
George Pataki
George Elmer Pataki (; born June 24, 1945) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 53rd governor of New York from 1995 to 2006. An attorney by profession, Pataki was elected mayor of his hometown of Peekskill, New York, and went on ...
and local school districts, LIPA had agreed not to seek to lower the assessed tax value. In 2018, the Suffolk County
Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
ruled that the agreement had been binding on LILCO but not on LIPA.
In September 2020, a settlement was reached, with the Town Council voting 4-1 for reduced taxes and the Northport School District Board of Education accepting it. The will lower LIPA's property taxes on the Power Station from $86 million to $46 million over the course of seven years. In turn, LIPA will have to pay $14.5 million to the school district each year and $3 million to the town.
See also
*
List of power stations in New York
This is a list of electricity-generating power stations in New York, sorted by type and name. A more complete list can be found on the NYISO website in the planning data and reference docs section where an annual report call the Load and Capacity ...
*
New York energy law
New York energy law is the statutory, regulatory, and common law of the state of New York concerning the policy, conservation, taxation, and utilities involved in energy. Secondary sources have also influenced the law of energy in the Empire Stat ...
References
External links
National Grid USA
{{Electricity delivery, collapsed
1967 establishments in New York (state)
Energy infrastructure completed in 1967
Energy infrastructure completed in 1977
Oil-fired power stations in New York (state)
Buildings and structures in Suffolk County, New York
Energy infrastructure on Long Island, New York