By Joy Bergmann
In a statement issued Tuesday night, Con Edison has specifically asked Upper West Siders to reduce their energy consumption to prevent electricity outages during the current heat wave as crews repair equipment in the area. Con Ed said it had already reduced available voltage by five percent.
Con Ed said:
The area on the West Side of Manhattan is bounded on West 111th Street, West 71st Street on the south, Central Park West on the east, and the Hudson River on the west and includes 77,000 customers in the Upper West Side and Manhattan Valley neighborhoods.
Con Edison has asked customers in these areas not to use energy-intensive appliances such as washers, dryers, and microwaves until crews complete repairs. The company also asks customers to limit unnecessary use of air conditioning. If you have two air conditioners, use only one and set it to the highest comfortable temperature.
Customers can report outages and check service restoration status at www.conEd.com/reportoutage, or with our mobile app for iOS or Android devices, or by calling 1-800-75-CONED (1-800-752-6633). When calling, customers should report whether their neighbors also have lost power. Customers who report outages will receive updates with their estimated restoration times as they become available.
Customers can follow Con Edison on Twitter or like us on Facebook for general outage updates, safety tips and storm preparation information.
Many Upper West Siders will recall a massive blackout that blanketed the neighborhood on July 13, 2019.
How will we know when they’ve completed repairs?
I wouldn’t have known they’d requested this if I hadn’t read West Side Rag (thanks for the info).
FYI: they’re now asking all of NYC and Westchester to reduce power consumption.
https://mobile.twitter.com/ConEdison?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Very strange, I get texts from them and got one last night about Upper East side for some reason. But haven’t seen any about UWS or entire area. Glad I caught it here. I mean obviously I’m trying to minimize usage, but still.
and how much exactly are the condo monster developers contributing to infrastructure, grid, and workforce increases/maintenance while they profit from exploding population and electricity usage?
About: “infrastructure, grid, and workforce increases/maintenance”
Ummm…please clarify…HOW are these related to electricity problems?
About: “while they profit from exploding population and electricity usage”
Ummmx#2…HOW do they PROFIT from electricity usage…and WHAT “exploding population”??
Spelling: Acceptable
Logic: In need of repair
It’s possible that the condo towers don’t tax the electric grid as much as one might suppose, given that the apartments are often bought as investments or to launder money, and tend to be infrequently occupied. Their assault on the city’s aesthetics is another thing altogether.
Hmmm . . .
.
And I was think about buying a Tesla.
Not auspicious. Suppose it’s the “Alternate Side Parking” day to move your car and there’s NO Juice.
Suppose you’re just back from picking up your kid at college, taking your Mom to the doctor, or whatever. and your battery is all run down . . .
.
What are you talking about? I’ve owned a model S in Manhattan and parked on the street. There are plenty of chargers around. Why would you park your car with no energy left? Do you usually park with an empty tank or just barely enough to make it to a station?
Yeah better get another oil burner, that will help.
If you needed to take your mom to the doctor you’d take a cab or Uber. Where were you planning on parking your car with the empty battery and charge it if there was power? Neither of these scenarios is a reason not to get a Tesla
What if all the cabs and Ubers were electric?
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Mom lives in Garden City, her doc is in Oyster Bay.
Not exactly Uber/taxi stuff.
Not everybody has the same family dynamic.
There’s plenty of gas stations on the way, but when Con Ed has no juice . . . there ain’t No juice.
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My building management just sent an email announcing that they’ve shut down our passenger elevator until they get an all-clear from Con Ed. With luck, maybe the reduction in voltage will help prevent something like last August’s massive outage.
And ther reason they didn’t update the grid before the hottest days of the year is because????
I work on West 40th, and it’s the same situation. Our office building is not letting us have the AC on any cooler than 78 degrees. It’s like a sauna here.
I don’t understand how Con Ed doesn’t have power to spare in NYC.
How many store, large and small, have gone out of business during the last year? How many ice-cooled theatres are close? How many restaurants? How many offices are vacant now?
The request to conserve is City-wide. It follows that it addresses large inactive areas of Manhattan as well.
I don’t understand.
Read, you’ll learn a few things…
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/02/10/nyregion/how-new-york-city-gets-its-electricity-power-grid.html
Furthermore Con Edison long ago divested itself of large power generating plants. Albany pushed for this and so take any complaints to King Cuomo.
https://investor.conedison.com/news-releases/news-release-details/con-edison-completes-sales-major-new-york-city-power-plants
How about we shut down the lights of Times Square before we start inconveniencing the locals?
Lighting uses comparatively small amounts of electrical power. You could shut down lights on Broadway/Times Square after a certain hour an it would make little difference to power grid.
This happened less than three months after the shut down of the Indian Point nuclear power plant and should be expected to be a regular part of our lives going forward. I for one am happy to curtail my electricity during the summer months when I am in the Hamptons and can sleep easier knowing that there will not be a nuclear reactor meltdown. An easy trade off in my view.
The odds of a nuclear meltdown is 0%. The odds that NYC will have permanent power shortages, rolling blackouts (see Calif.), and all of the misery & death that accompanies adopting a Third World energy system is 100%.