Utility says the grid exercised independent judgment during heat wave
The Grid Acted Unilaterally
NEW YORK — Consolidated Edison told reporters Wednesday that the fourteen-hour blackout affecting 60,000 Queens residents during last week’s heat wave was “technically planned” in the sense that the grid’s automated systems made a deliberate decision to shut down, a decision Con Edison acknowledges it was not consulted on.
“The system protected itself,” said ConEd spokesperson Raymond Watt. “We respect that. We just wish it had sent an email.”
The Technical Explanation
Watt explained that three substations simultaneously exceeded load thresholds and triggered automatic shutoffs, a scenario ConEd’s planning documents describe as “a possibility” in a section marked “low probability events” that has been flagged in every summer readiness review since 2018. “We were aware it could happen,” Watt confirmed. “The surprise was when.”
Infrastructure analyst Connie Kilowatt noted that the substations in question average 47 years in age. “They are older than most of the people who work on them,” she said. “We are asking 1977 infrastructure to handle 2026 air conditioning loads. The math is not cooperative.”
Compensation and Future Plans
Affected customers will receive a credit of $32.50, covering approximately four hours of the fourteen-hour outage and none of the food they lost. Con Edison said upgrades to the substations are scheduled for 2029, contingent on rate approval, which is contingent on a regulatory review, which is contingent on a timeline the Public Service Commission describes as “active.” The grid, for its part, has not commented, but has been drawing more power than usual, which Watt calls “a good sign.”
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com