I expected the blackouts and brownouts to be much, much worse. And I was SHOCKED that my neighborhood wasn't involved. Usually, we'd be the first affected with the excuse that we don't need electricity because we don't have any hospitals anymore.
Just a shorty few years ago our electric company Con Edison ran adverts on TV for us to save electricity showing a young teen removing her cell phone charger to save electricity after she used it.To conserve energy ,it is laughable now as an admonishment to save electricity usage as we build,build build new skyscapers.
In present time I look out of my window in our city and see tens of dozens of new hi rise buildings some approaching 100 stories tall and I wonder now how can we keep building these huge electricity draining buildings and not have more electric grid failures ?
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You will never be able to "fix" NYC. Population density has hit critical mass. There is a finite number of people that can live literally on top of each other.
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@Phil, there are so many sections, several blocks of which I can see out our apartment's window when its clear, where it looks like buildings for many blocks only go up seven or eight stories. The air rights were apparently sold, so that even though these are perfectly usable spaces practically, the only reason those places can't be built up is that the right to do that was contracted to another location. It does seem like out-of-towners look out the window on the 16th to 45th floors, and are astonished that we can see all the way across for seven blocks at least.
I personally hope it's many decades off from a selfish point off view, but I get the feeling that this potentially usable, build-up-able space will wind up being built up someday, that the "need" for more real estate will - with some set of legislators in the future - will end up overriding what was contracted for by earlier generations. I don't know if that's good or bad for society that deals of past generations can be overturned - I guess it depends on whether I like the policies of who's in office changing the law at that point. :)
What will happen when Indian Point closes down?
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@Joseph
Nothing good. Nuclear plants are base load, big steady, providers that even out fluctuations from solar/wind. When you lose things like them its like juggling chainsaws on top of a bowl of jello.
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I don’t think ConEdison is getting any of their electricity from that plant.
Sorry, I misspoke. ConEd used to *own* the plant and no longer does. This means that they have to buy their electricity from a number of sources.
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"Upgrades cost money ", and the regulation of rate increases are given as reasons why ConEd's wiring wasn't up to snuff on Sunday. Yes, upgrades cost money, but here my question: when was the last time ConEd did not pay its shareholders dividends, and it's executives bonuses? I guess there was enough money for those. So, cry me a river, you poor, money-making monopoly, and fix your grid!
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Do folks living in Arizona live without electricity? Reading by gaslight as their main pastime?
Blaming the hot weather is ridiculous
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@Mikey
Difference is that Arizona doesn't have the population density, and therefore power needs, NYC does.
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I blame everything bad that is now happening on President Trump.
This saves me from wasting a lot of time and energy investigating the causes of major disasters ... because more times than not I eventually discover that my initial hunch about him was right.
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12,063 megawatts. That's nearly 12.21 gigawatts.
Are we sure Doc Brown didn't have anything to do with this?
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I thought the development of cheap, gas turbines eliminated these brown outs. These generators are cheap, can be on line in minutes and run on natural gas that has price that traders bet on low it can go. Even California has figured how to do it. The article does not make clear where the problem is the megawatt hours getting generated or the passed through the lines. If it is the latter, that is a big problem. How it could occur does not look reasonable. It is just more cables and transformers. They are not that expensive. But then I never understood electricity in NYC. What kind of twit puts switchboards for a building located in a flood plain in its basement because building space above a flood line is more valuable?
@Michael Blazin Since there are few poles anymore, I am sure you remember them, it is called basement entry from the conduit under the street. The other, and more operative issue, is how one "staffs" their business. Always ready for peak time or for some percentage utilization above average? The business solution for ConEd, and one that is not totally unreasonable, is to use selective "brown outs" or "black outs" during these peaks to relieve the strain on existing resources which are capable of loads of some percentage above average. . But it does not always work -- as just demonstrated.
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@Michael Blazin
The energy might be there but the transmission capacity might not be. The more you put through the lines, the hotter they get and the more they expand. Overhead lines can literally start dipping down.
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Its not a flood plain.
"He gave my wife a hug, told her she looked beautiful. He was a gentleman. He told me, ‘Wow, look at those shoulders.’ Told me I was handsome.” "
That equal time by The Donald for the bride and groom thing really works, at least until I snap out of the real-live fairy tale aspect for that couple and focus the reality of how The Donald says and does. I think he may actually like stopping in to a party like that, where he's not only the only leader of the free world, but maybe even the only celebrity.
It's easy to forget that he was a huge deal for decades when he showed up, and may actually have been loved much more when he was a star and didn't have power to cause so much turmoil.
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BTW although City law prohibits stores from leaving the door while the air conditioning is on (power drain/waste), many chain stores ignore the law and keep the doors open.
Additional stress on the power grid.
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Your column says that Jennifer Lopez is celebrating her 50th birthday at a Manhattan location tonight. What is "Jenny from the Bronx" doing to support the people of Puerto Rico? Will she join her fellow celebrities and march?
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@SmartGirlNYC I really don't think that many people care what an entertainer tries to do for Puerto Rico. It is a dangerous political situation that needs to be handled deftly by professionals who know how to keep raw emotion out of the equation, not Ms Lopez.
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On the other hand, during World War II, Stars like Judy Garland sold war bonds. Actress Carole Lombard died when the plane she was in crashed -- doing her bit for her country.
American actors like James Stewart, Clark Gable, and John Garfield enlisted. Hollywood actor Leslie Howard, a Brit, died when his plane crashed while on an intelligence-gathering mission.
During the First World War, English actors like Basil Rathbone, Ronald Colman, and Herbert Marshall served.
Audrey Hepburn spent her last few years working on behalf of UNICEF and in particular the starving children of Somalia.
I tend not to care about celebrities, but when they do worthwhile, even dangerous things, things "average" people do, I am glad of their egalitarian impulses.
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@B. Are you equivocating world wars and mass starvation with PR? Really? You are so off base on that score. I understand their power to raise money for worthy causes, but what is the name of the cause needing money in PR.
What a shock: NYC experiencing black-outs and brown outs owing to the heat.
Why in 2019 do we not have adequate power? In this town, giant luxury apartment buildings and office complexes are sprouting like the proverbial mushrooms after a rain so power consumption grows and grows.
Yet every time the power utility tries to install a new power substation, local community boards oppose it. Several years ago, in overdeveloped Chelsea, a substation was opposed for being homophobic. Yes, you got that right: a homophobic power substation. The substation was planned to go a block away from the office of the Gay Men's Health Crisis. Thus the bizarre allegation. And the same council-member who made that bizarre charge later ran for mayor screaming most shrilly about how bad the power system is. For over a year, she was ordained The Front Runner by media and endorsed by the NY Times. She lost.
We simply cannot continue the rampant Bloomberg/deBlasio upzoning policies while ignoring the power infrastructure.
I need to go get a Piña Colada...
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
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In what other places were substations slated to go? Was this one the one you have been fuming about, or were there other rejected locations which you endorsed? And which the community fought?
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@B. You would do much better to reverse the question and ask which substations Community Boards approved. That's a much shorter list.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
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If AOC's district shuts off their air conditioning to support her Green New Deal that would alleviate stress to the grid tremendously.
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@Not 99pct: If we could just harness the power of political hot air and hypocrisy we'd be set forever.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
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“Con Edison is a private company, but state regulators control its ability to increase rates on customers. Upgrades cost money.”
New Yorkers love to complain about our crumbling infrastructure about as much as they hate the inconvenience or cost of fixing it.
This is going to happen more and more and blaming ConEd is ridiculous.
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@Brooklyn Dog Geek: Except there is no one but ConEd and our government officials to blame!
But I love the attempt that's made to blame all of us, the millions of citizens of NYC - as if we're somehow bad for using our a/c's at home.
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What can we do to help ConEd? Would more EnergyStar rated ACs help? Could ConEd do more to educate the public before the emergency that deprives our neighbors of electricity?
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Well, we could all save more electricity. Turn off the lamp when you leave the room, use the air conditioner only for sleeping, plug devices that have remote controls into power strips, with the rocker switch on OFF -- or unplug altogether.
I forget how much electricity TVs and stereos and those other appliances swallow up 24/7 even when not in use, but it was a staggering figure.
That said, time for Con Ed to upgrade all cables.
And secure them against terrorism.
As with our interstate highway system under President Eisenhower, a massive infusion of federal funds will be necessary. Nothing comes cheap.
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@Max And Max Let the Williams Co pipeline be built so the utility companies have access to more natural gas. The US has an abundance of natural gas, but no pipelines to get to where it needs to be. New York State has a shortage of natural gas while Texas oil fields have so much natural gas that they light it on fire to get rid of it.
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@Max And Max. The real issue the absolute lack of investment in infrastructure. I agree with the article about NYers not paying attention to the work that needs to occur undergound. It isn't pretty but its damn important. Con Ed has a fairly good campaign about conserving energy, including the use of energy efficient products, but no campaign will ever be enough when you need more substations and updated systems. Oh, we need real reform in our Environmental Review process for the approval of new deevelopments. Under Cuomo, Bloomberg and yes, DiBlasio, luxury developments and office condos srout like mushrooms. All of these developments have to produce Environmental reviews which deal with their potential impact on seweage, electricity, etc. And yet, these projects are just greenlighted. Where's that City Planning Agency? What is it doing? Just greenlighting projects to the highest bidder? if we want to tackle this problem and with climate change it wil grow, we need to get into these areas as well: infrastructure development and environmental review!
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