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The new corporate organization reflects the integration that had already developed in operation. In 1929, the parts of what was to become Niagara Mohawk were already interconnected. Power could flow from Niagara to Schenectady, from Spier Falls to Ilion. But integration is a far larger term than interconnection. Prior to 1929, the individual operating companies met local needs with their own generating facilities and sold surplus power or purchased it from others in periods of peak load or emergency.
 Today, these same generating plants are a part of a vast power pool in which the variations of water supply are balanced by coal-burning plants. This pooling of resources assures an ample supply of electricity as needs for power increase and fluctuate from hour to hour, day to day, and month to month.
In a central control room under the supervision of engineers, each day's operation is carefully planned. Here, the power available from each powerhouse is reported, together with its cost of production. Here, the hourly needs of customers within the individual areas served by the company are forecast as accurately as possible.
The men in the System control room must now decide what stations and how much power from each will be needed to provide the day's requirements. Will it be power from the constantly flowing waters of Niagara—from the swollen streams in spring—from the waters dammed in reservoirs to be released in summer—from the coal-burning steam stations? Many other considerations must be weighed: the limitations of canal or river regulations, the water rights of other power stations, and the precise procedure to be followed in case of emergency.
Today, floodlights at the Rome Air Base draw on the same great reservoir of electric power as a battery of giant electric steel furnaces in Lackawanna. A paper maker on the Hoosic Rivet shares his source of power with a farmer on the shores of Lake Erie. The flow of electricity makes textiles in Troy or operates a lathe for a workman in Malone.
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Niagara Mohawk