It was founded by Ellis Laurimore Phillips, an engineer, and a group of New York City investors, including George W.

[2] At the time, Long Island had multiple small power utilities that served individual villages; their business plan was to acquire these and interconnect them into an island-wide grid.

[4][5] The extra generating capacity was needed due to a sixfold increase in Long Island's electricity demand from 1910 to 1925.

The utility's poor response to the storm further eroded public confidence in LILCO's ability to handle an emergency and placed increased pressure to shutter the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant.

[15][16] In the end, in a political decision born from LILCO's inability to present a viable evacuation plan for Suffolk County, Shoreham was closed down in 1992 after never having operated at more than minimum power for testing purposes.

National Grid handed control of Long Island's electrical transmission system to New Jersey utility Public Service Enterprise Group in 2014.