Voltage Reduced On Staten Island After Con Edison Manhole Fires
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Manholes fire left part of Staten Island without power in the middle of a brutal heat wave overnight, and Con Edison has reduced voltage in many areas in as crews repair equipment.
More than one fire broke in Con Edison vaults out Friday night. During repairs Saturday morning, Con Edison reduced voltage to the St. George, Tompkinsville, Park Hill, Stapleton, Grant City, Fox Hills, New Dorp, Dongan Hills, Midland Beach, and Rosebank neighborhoods.
"We've got an 8 percent voltage reduction in place, and for the most part, customers won't really see it. It will be transparent for them," said Con Edison spokesman Bob McGee. "But this is resulting from a couple of manhole fires that we had overnight."
The area includes more than 61,000 metered customers, and is bounded by Kill Van Kull on the north, Bard Avenue and Manor Road on the west, Raritan Bay on the south and The Narrows on the east, Con Edison said.
Some customers in the area were still without power later in the day Saturday, McGee said.
"Unfortunately, we have about 100 customers out right now, but we want to keep that number down and get this resolved as quickly as we can," he told WCBS 880.
Despite the brutal heat, those affected by the power down were asked not to use their air conditioners. Con Edison also asked the affected customers not to use other power-heavy appliances such as washers and dryers, and to turn off lights and televisions when not needed.
"As a result of these manhole fires that we had overnight, we lost a couple of 33-kilovolt feeders, and then a subsequent one at a substation, and as our crews are working to repair those – and we also have backup generation in place – we're asking people to conserve," McGee said.
Customers can report outages and check restoration status at the Con Edison Web site, or by calling (800) 75-CONED.
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