New York Faces Blackouts as Extreme Heat Strains the Grid Leave a comment

On Wednesday afternoon, New Yorkers’ phones started shrieking as an emergency alert warned them to conserve power or face the prospect of widespread blackouts. The city along with large parts of the East Coast are blanketed under an oppressive heat wave that is taxing the electricity grid, much as the record-setting West Coast heat wave did earlier this week.

Amid sweltering temperatures, several neighborhoods in New York City have seen electricity outages, leaving more than 3,000 people residents without power, data from New York utility company Con Edison shows. The majority of the outages occurred in Brooklyn, including the largest one that affected 1,7000 Con Edison customers in the neighborhood of Williamsburg.

In some areas, Con Edison has been taking extreme measures in its attempt to keep the grid running as demand skyrockets. On Wednesday afternoon, the utility reduced power voltage by 8% to some neighborhoods in the borough of Queens while crews worked to repair power equipment, affecting some 64,000 customers in more than a dozen neighborhoods. To help residents manage the heat, the firm also began distributing dry ice at one location in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. By late afternoon, a city emergency alert went out, stating “NYC is urging all households and businesses to immediately limit energy usage to prevent power outages as the intense heat continues. Please avoid the use of energy-intensive appliances such as washers, dryers, and microwaves. Limit the unnecessary use of air conditioning.”

At a press conference, Mayor Bill de Blasio urged New Yorkers to “urgently, urgently” conserve power to help prevent more blackouts from occurring. He said Con Edison’s president informed him that widespread power failures could take place Wednesday evening—usually a time of peak demand—if New Yorkers did not seriously conserve.

“Our electric system is dealing with real strain right now because of the severity of heat we are experiencing today, after four days in a row of intense heat,” de Blasio told reporters. “We have a real challenge on our hands. Immediately, immediately reduce the use of electricity in your home or business. This is very serious stuff, we need to assure our electric supply is protected and avoid any disruption.”

The New York grid’s incapability to withstand the current heat wave is the latest sign that the city’s energy system is in rough shape. The outages come less than a year after the relatively mild Hurricane Isiais left thousands of people without power for days. In July 2019, a broken connection between key pieces of equipment at a New York electrical substation also plunged swaths of the city into darkness.

It’s not just New York City’s electricity system that are falling apart and unprepared for tomorrow’s climate either. Since 2000, power outages in the U.S. have increased by 67%. Just five months ago, Texas’ grid was pushed into disarray when a cold snap took much of the state’s power capacity offline. And in recent years, California utilities have used preemptive rolling blackouts in dozens of counties in an effort to stave out wildfires from downed live power lines.

These blackouts have had deadly consequences. A Buzzfeed News investigation found that at least 700 people lost their lives during the cold snap and blackout. The death toll from the Pacific Northwest heat wave is only just coming into focus, but power outages in the region may have played a role as well.

If you’re in New York, make sure you stay hydrated. Look for a list of cooling centers here.

This is a developing story and will be updated.