NYC Blackout Post Mortem

Con Ed doesn't quite know what caused the blackout yesterday that affected upwards of 130,000 customers - and more likely affected more than 500,000 people - including those who used more than a half dozen subway lines. Con Ed's investigating the problem, but only cites statistics and locations of the affected areas:

Con Edison has restored electrical power to 136,700 customers affected by a transmission disturbance today. Power was out to customers in the West Bronx and the Upper East Side of Manhattan for about 50 minutes today.

The cause of the outage between 3:42 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. is being investigated.

In the West Bronx, approximately 57,900 customers between the Harlem River, 174th Street and 144th Street and Park Avenue were affected.

In Manhattan, approximately 78,800 customers between Fifth Avenue and the East River, from 77th to 110th Streets were without power. Randall’s Island also was affected.

They think that lightning might have played a role, but they're not sure. What they do know is that the problems at one power substation cascaded to two other substations, causing the widespread outage. Initial reports had indicated that there was an explosion or blast at a Bronx power substation, but it now appears the problem started in a substation in Astoria, Queens.

That's not good news for Con Ed, which spend $1.4 billion on improvements to the system. I can forgive Con Ed for sporadic outages due to weather - trees coming down on lines (though that problem could be reduced slightly if more effort was spent on pruning trees along utility right of ways).

That this problem spread from the initial site to two other substations suggests that the equipment in place to prevent an outage from spreading was insufficient to handle the job.

People simply don't have confidence in Con Ed to provide a stable supply of power.

Mayor Bloomberg called this a minor inconvenience.

Mayor Bloomberg, whose East 79th Street home was hit by the blackout, played down the impact on New Yorkers, and he scoffed at questions over Con Ed's capability to deliver power based on the latest outage.

"When it happened, right away we started our procedures, sending people, police, light towers . . . Fortunately, it was virtually all back before anything really was able to arrive on the scene, and there was no problem. It was a minor inconvenience to people," he said.

It's good that the OEM and other agencies responded promptly, which is all part of their job. The problem is that this is more than likely to herald yet more blackouts this summer because of problems with the distribution and generation of power in the City. He notes that there are limitations to the current infrastructure and distribution system, but shrugs it off. Nice leadership there. How about calling for a massive infusion of funds to upgrade the infrastructure and/or call for open competition for other companies to come in and provide services to break up the monopolistic power Con Ed has over electric distribution in the City.

Bloomberg's comments didn't sit well with many who were inconvenienced more than simply having to reset alarm clocks:

Mayor Bloomberg - who lost power at his private residence and Gracie Mansion - called the Manhattan-Bronx blackout a "minor inconvenience."

"I think it's fair to say that resetting your clock was probably the worst thing that happened," he said.

His constituents begged to disagree, describing scenes of mild chaos and major frustration when the electricity flickered off at 3:42 p.m.

Traffic lights went dark, bringing cars and trucks to a standstill, and then a cautious crawl, at intersections.

Signals on the 4, 5, 6, D, E and V lines failed. Trains, drawing power off the unaffected third rail, crept to the nearest station to disgorge passengers.

A huge groan went up on a stalled No. 4 when the conductor announced it was temporarily stuck.

His shirt soaked with sweat, Dr. Ashish Singh found his way down the Grand Concourse to watch four packed buses roll by.

"None of us knew how we would get home," said Singh, 28, of the upper East Side.

Across the area, small businesses locked their doors and offices sent employees home.

At a Gristede's on Lexington Ave. and E. 89th St., workers hauled meat from the display cases and hawked candles, flashlights and water.

Only a day earlier, Con Ed was getting grilled by the City Council to impose another rate hike:

At a hearing the day before, City Council members had interrogated the company about a proposed rate increase for next year that could tack on about $12 a month to residential bills and $235 a month to business bills. Con Edison representatives have said they need the extra money to upgrade an aging power delivery system, which was faulted in the August 2006 blackout concentrated in Astoria and Long Island City.

"We were promised yesterday that they've made all these improvements," Council Member Peter Vallone Jr. of Astoria said. "They said they would continue to provide the level of service that we've become accustomed to. Apparently they mean rolling black-outs and shoddy service."

Mr. Burke said Con Edison had acted within minutes to restore power.

Acting quickly to restore service when it is disrupted is only part of the problem. Making sure that the power isn't disrupted is also a key part of the job.

Conservation will not solve this problem alone, as the number of people using power in the City continues to increase along with the population. New power plants need to be built to handle the demand, and the distribution system needs to be significantly upgraded to handle the loads.

UPDATE:
Gothamist has a roundup of blackout coverage, and notes that among those who were mildly inconvenienced was a woman stuck in an elevator for the duration of the blackout. Oh, and she happened to be 8 months pregnant and unable to fit through the escape hatch on the elevator.