Quote:
Con Ed asks Midtown East to reduce power
by Catherine Tymkiw
Another day of dangerously high temperatures brought new power troubles on Thursday.
Electrical equipment problems, reportedly with a transformer, prompted Consolidated Edison to urge its customers in Midtown East to discontinue using non-essential electrical appliance and equipment until the equipment is fixed.
Con Ed spokesman Alfonso Quiroz was unable to confirm the problem was transformer-related but said “it’s not unusual” to ask customers to reduce power use while equipment is fixed.
The utility is asking all residents and businesses between 40th and 14th streets from Fifth Avenue to the East River to shut off any unused or unnecessary appliances.
Outages throughout the five boroughs and Westchester County left 23,700 customers in the dark on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press, but by early Thursday morning, Con Ed said that number was sharply reduced to 5,600 customers.
One customer can equate anywhere from a one-person household to a large office tower.
Meanwhile, the National Weather Service is calling for a high of 98 degrees on Thursday, but with the heat index, it will feel closer to 106.
On Wednesday, records were broken at LaGuardia Airport, which hit 102, breaking a 51-year high, and Islip, L.I., which broke a one-year record at 98 degrees. Newark, N.J., tied its record -- set in 1955 -- at 100 degrees.
High temperatures also brought record electricity output. Con Ed set a new record load of 13,141 megawatts late Wednesday, breaking Tuesday’s record of 13,103 megawatts. As of 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, the utility said power demand was 11,778 megawatts.