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Chronological List of District Heating
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Nassau County built a central utilities plant in 1972 on the former site of Mitchell Field that served only three customers. The facility was not financially sound and it was leased to Trigen in 1989 to allow them to install a cogeneration plant.
The plant was shut down
and abandoned by 2022.
References
1980 "Utility
Plant Pipe Flaws Found," Newsday, January 29, 1980, Page .
1988 "No
Profits in Sight for Nassau Power Plant," Newsday, April 4,
1988, Page 23.
Nassau County's giant Central Utility Plant at Mitchel Field, built in
1972 to supply steam for heating and cool water for air conditioning to a
government complex that never came to be, has lost an estimated $21
million since it opened, county records have shown.
And county officials admit there's no turnaround in sight for the plant,
which has been plagued by poor planning, mechanical failures and an
inability to sign up new customers. The plant, which cost $5 million to
build, lost $1.2 million last year alone, according to county records, and
serves only three customers: Nassau Community College, the Nassau Veterans
Memorial Coliseum and the Long Island Marriott Hotel in Uniondale. Critics
say that having a plant supply only three buildings when it was built to
serve a small city of government facilities is roughly akin to putting a
locomotive engine into a motor scooter.
1991 "Trigeneration Brings Cost & Energy Savings to Nassau County," by Tom Casten and Claudette Greene, District Heating and Cooling 76(4):4-7, 9-11, 13-15 (Second Quarter 1991)
© 2026 Morris A. Pierce