Queens goes dark as the heat peaks
Con Edison shut off power to nearly 10,000 customers in parts of Queens on Friday as temperatures climbed above 100 degrees. The outages hit Howard Beach, Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, and South Ozone Park. In a New York summer, the grid met reality and reality won. The timing was especially rough, since people do not usually enjoy being told to sweat politely while the wires catch up.
Half a million customers were told to cut back
ConEd also asked nearly 500,000 customers across the Bronx, Westchester, Queens, and Brooklyn to use less electricity while crews handled repairs. The company said it cut voltage by 8 percent as a precaution to protect equipment and keep service going. Customers were told to avoid energy-hungry appliances, limit air conditioning, and not charge electric vehicles. If a city can buckle because people run the AC and microwave at the same time, the system needs a fix, not a polished statement.
Con Edison says the trouble is local, not systemwide
In its statement, Con Edison said the equipment problem affected neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens but did not affect the rest of its system. The company said repairs were underway and listed a wide stretch of neighborhoods, from Broad Channel and Kew Gardens to East New York and City Line. The map of affected areas reads like a transit delay announcement with a voltage problem, which is to say broad, annoying, and not much fun for anyone living inside it.
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