NASA has Houston. NYSEG and RG&E have Vestal.

The Energy Control Center in the Southern Tier monitors the electrical grid for more than 40% of its upstate customers.

With real-time data, it’s able to take action when an outage occurs across New York.

"All of our transmission lines and distribution circuits, most of them are above ground. And if a tree falls or snow gets too heavy, those lines come down. And it's our job to first make sure that they're safe and energized so no one gets hurt. But then we have crews that we have to dispatch to make bring those lines back up and fix them,” said Tom Donnelly, senior manager at the New York Energy Control Center.

Stretching across the room, a screen displays everything from individual power lines to large substations across the state. It’s often the first line of defense in helping restore power should an outage occur.

"The reach of this control center is very broad. My daughter's in school in Poughkeepsie. Her lights come on and off, and we monitor those. My other daughter's up in Buffalo and the same thing. We're watching those lights. We reach all the way up to the Adirondacks and to Canada. All of our customers, all of our transmission lines have generators and we have to watch all of them 24 hours a day," said Donnelly.

It’s a job staff at the New York Energy Control Center don’t take lightly, and it’s a job that never ends. Not only are they responsible for helping restore power, but it’s also their job to make sure lines are turned off when needed.

Since opening in the early 1990s, the room has never been empty.

"We do feel that we're saving lives. All of our linemen look to us to make sure that they have a safe working environment. And that means that we've sent lighting trucks out to pick up operators when the snow is too deep for them to come in. We absolutely have to have a full staff in here. We make arrangements with the neighboring hotel,” said Donnelly.

NYSEG and RG&E serve roughly 1.3 million electricity customers across upstate.