31st largest plant in New York · 930th nationally
Caithness Long Island Energy Center is a natural gas power plant in New York with a nameplate capacity of 349 MW. It generates roughly 2.5M MWh per year — enough to power about 234,698 average U.S. homes.
Its capacity factor of 81% means it runs nearly around-the-clock as baseload generation. At 803 lb CO₂/MWh, its emission rate sits above the national grid average of roughly 800 lb/MWh.
Ghost bars are each month's theoretical maximum (349 MW nameplate × hours in the month). Filled bars are actual net generation reported to EIA Form 923. The gap between them is capacity factor made visible.
| Plant Name | Caithness Long Island Energy Center |
|---|---|
| Operator | Caithness Long Island, Llc |
| City | Yaphank |
| County | Suffolk County |
| State | New York |
| ZIP | 11980 |
| Coordinates | 40.81420, -72.94030 |
This plant highlighted in navy-ringed pin; other generators within 25 miles shown as fuel-colored dots.
| ID | Technology | Fuel | Capacity | Status | Online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CT01 | Natural Gas Fired Combined Cycle | Natural Gas | 196 MW | Operating | 2009 |
| ST01 | Natural Gas Fired Combined Cycle | Natural Gas | 153 MW | Operating | 2009 |
| CO₂ | 989.2k metric tons |
|---|---|
| SO₂ | 5 metric tons |
| NOₓ | 57 metric tons |
| CO₂ Rate | 803 lb/MWh |
Annual totals and CO₂ rate reported by EPA eGRID for 2023. Reference averages are approximate U.S.-wide figures from the same dataset.
| NERC Region | NPCC |
|---|---|
| Balancing Authority | New York Independent System Operator |
Natural gas plants are the workhorse of the modern grid. Combined-cycle units achieve very high efficiency and can ramp up and down quickly to balance variable renewables. They emit roughly half the CO₂ per MWh of coal and far less of other pollutants, but they still release upstream methane during fuel extraction.