Long Island Lighting Company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Long Island Lighting Company, or LILCo [ "lil-co" ], was an electrical power company for Long Island, New York.
LILCo was the original power utility for Long Island from 1911 until 1998. It was founded by E. L. Philips, an engineer, and a group of New York City investors, when they purchased four small electric companies in Amityville, Islip, Northport and Sayville, NY (Newsday/Long Island Our Story).
Almost from its inception, LILCo's rate payers and local politicians were upset by E. L. Philips' anual salary of $5,000(US), an unheard of sum in 1915, when he voted himself this sum.
LILCo is most famous for building the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant. In the end, in a decision based solely on evacuation plans, the plant operated only briefly and then was closed down and bought by Long Island Power Authority (LIPA).
Hurricane Gloria hit Long Island on September 27, 1985, but power was not fully restored until October 8. The bitterness from the delays in restoring power helped bring down the Shoreham Plant and eventually helped force the sale of the company.[1]
On March 5, 1998, final federal approval was received for LIPA to take over LILCo. The deal was completed later that year.
