Shining a light on Rockville Centre’s power plant

While the refrigerator works tirelessly to keep food fresh and the lamp enables nighttime vision, the television enables viewers to connect to the outside world, without ever having to leave the couch. Our lives are very literally powered by electricity; a fact that can be taken for granted until something goes wrong and the world is left dark.

After reporting on the ongoing work at Rockville Centre’s power plant and the recent power outage, the Herald decided to undertake a two-part series on the Rockville Centre Electric Department, in an effort to illuminate the history and inner workings of one of New York state’s only remaining community electric utilities.

The eight generators currently in the plant were all installed between 1942 and 1994 and can generate between 2 and 6.3 megawatts, far exceeding the power generated when the Rockville Centre power plant was established in 1898, at a time when electricity was measured in candle power.

According to “A Brief History of Rockville Centre,” written by village resident Marilyn Nunes Devlin, the plant, powered by steam, was created only 15 years after the nation’s first electric generating plant was opened in New York City.

The Rockville Centre Electric Department covers the incorporated village, and supplies utility to major institutions such as Molloy College. The utility also provides service to South Nassau Communities Hospital, which is on the border of Oceanside and Rockville Centre.

Originally, the plant only produced electricity to light the village’s streets and it only operated at night.

16 candle power is the equivalent of 50 watts, and a megawatt is 1 million watts. The original electric rate was .72 cents per month for each light bulb, a far cry from the average residential electricity bill for the 2011 fiscal year — approximately $89 per month.

In 1927, Rockville Centre’s village trustees made the decision to switch from steam to diesel generation as the village grew rapidly.

According to Electric Department Superintendent Paul Pallas, Rockville Centre was one of many communities on Long Island to have local power plants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.