New York power

Produced 4,508.2 gigawatt-hours of electricity in 2024 — enough electricity for about 450,000 homes for a year.*

Air quality & health in Suffolk County

Suffolk County has a population of 1,523,170. Across five conditions the American Lung Association tracks — childhood asthma, adult asthma, COPD, lung cancer, and cardiovascular disease — it reports a combined 316,289 cases in the county.

The county received a grade of F for ozone pollution. For particle pollution — the fine soot and dust that can be breathed deep into the lungs — it received a grade of A.

Federal monitoring recorded 235 days of good air quality and 76 moderate days in the county over the most recent year, with 3 days rated unhealthy for sensitive groups.

Long-term exposure to air pollution has been linked to certain health conditions, particularly for children and older adults. Where electricity comes from affects how much combustion pollution is produced on the grid.

These figures describe the county as a whole and are not specific to this facility. Sources: American Lung Association – State of the Air (New York); U.S. EPA Air Quality Index.

The story behind this New York power plant

Among New York’s 100 natural gas plants, Northport ranks fourth by 2024 electricity produced, and it sits among the state’s busiest power plants overall, ninth of 908. It began operating in 1967 on Eaton’s Neck Road, drawing cooling water from Long Island Sound.

It made 4,508.2 gigawatt-hours (a gigawatt-hour is a billion watt-hours, a way of counting large amounts of electricity), enough for about 450,000 homes. It uses steam turbines, which burn fuel to boil water and spin generators with the steam, mostly natural gas with some residual fuel oil.

Generation profile

The plant can produce 1,564 megawatts of electricity at once, across 5 generating units. In 2024 it produced 4,508.2 gigawatt-hours in total, which works out to about 33% of what it could have produced running flat out all year — the pattern of a plant that runs through much of the year.

Nearby places worth exploring

Northport sits on Suffolk County’s North Shore, a stretch of harbor towns and Long Island Sound views. Stony Brook University is also in the county, as are Fire Island’s beaches. Farther east, the Hamptons, Montauk Point, and the North Fork wine country draw visitors from across the region.

Local school district

Northport-East Northport Union Free School District

Common questions

* Homes-powered and emissions comparisons are annual estimates based on national averages from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. “Homes powered” describes a quantity of electricity, not direct service to specific households. How we calculate this.