State and federal regulations determine NYPA’s customer base, which includes large and small businesses, not-for-profit organizations, public power systems and government agencies.

NYPA also sells electricity to private utilities for resale (without profit) to their customers, and to neighboring states[which?

[2] In 2024, Sandra Bleckman was hired as the New York Power Authority's workforce development project director.

Electric power produced from NYPA's facilities – in addition to being sold to large and small businesses, not-for-profit organizations, public power systems, government agencies, private utilities for resale (without profit) to their customers, and neighboring states, under federal requirements – is sold into the wholesale electricity market of New York State, which is administered by the NYISO.

Additionally, NYPA operates ten small power plants also fueled by natural gas.

[7]The hub of NYPA’s statewide power transmission facilities is the Frederick R. Clark Energy Center, in Marcy, New York.

On May 13, 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation that cleared the way for construction of both a hydroelectric facility and the St. Lawrence Seaway.

First power was achieved in July 1958, and on June 27, 1959, Queen Elizabeth II and Vice President Richard M. Nixon formally dedicated the St. Lawrence Project as a symbol of international cooperation.

After obtaining a license from the Federal Power Commission, Robert Moses commenced work on NYPA’s second hydroelectric generating station in early 1958.

When it was completed, three years later, the Niagara Power Project was the largest facility of its kind in the Western world.

In a recorded message broadcast February 10, 1961, to mark first power, President John F. Kennedy called the Niagara project “an outstanding engineering achievement” and an “example to the world of North American efficiency and determination.” Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project Legislation signed by Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller in 1968 allowed NYPA to expand its generation assets and build nuclear and pumped storage power projects.