Con Ed Asks That Air-Conditioners Be Shut Off in Parts of Brooklyn
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Electrical problems cut off power to about 2,000 Consolidated Edison customers in areas of Brooklyn yesterday, forcing the company to ask thousands more to shut off air-conditioners as temperatures soared during the city’s latest heat wave.
More than 89,000 customers living in the Park Slope, Bay Ridge, Borough Park, and Sunset Park neighborhoods have been urged to stop using nonessential appliances, including air-conditioners and washers and dryers, as crews attempt to fix the problem.
The power outage first occurred during the early hours of yesterday morning after built-up underground heat caused three electrical lines to fail. Con Ed said that as a precaution it had reduced voltage in the affected area by 8% while repairs were being made.
At 5 p.m. yesterday, there were more than 700 customers without power. Some customers could be without power through this morning, a spokesman for Con Ed, Joseph Petta, said.
Due to the service interruption, the company dispatched crews to distribute dry ice to help keep customers’ food cold at three locations in Brooklyn.
In July 2006, a blackout in Queens during a heat wave left thousands of Con Ed customers without electricity for more than a week.
The outage yesterday had nothing to do with extraordinary electrical demand, according to Mr. Petta, who said energy consumption in the city so far this summer has “certainly been high, but that’s to be expected in the summer.”
Electricity usage in the city peaked at 10,500 megawatts yesterday, well short of the record of 13,141 megawatts set August 2, 2006.
In anticipation of the weekend heat wave, the city’s Office of Emergency Management had asked residents to not set air-conditioner thermostats higher than 78 degrees in order to conserve energy. In New York, a heat wave is classified as at least three straight days with temperatures above 90 degrees.
Temperatures reached as high as 96 degrees in parts of the city during the weekend, according to the National Weather Service, which has issued a heat advisory for the New York City area until today at 6 p.m. Tomorrow’s forecast calls for a high of 89 degrees with a chance of afternoon thunderstorms.
