STATEN ISLAND — A record breaking Sunday power usage in the city topped off a weekend of outages on the East Shore of Staten Island, which led to a reduction of power for residents and businesses.
As temperatures climbed to the high 90s, Con Edison reduced voltage for 61,000 customers in St. George, Tompkinsville, Park Hill, Stapleton, Grant City, New Dorp, Fox Hills, Dongan Hills, Midland Beach and Rosebank for Saturday and Sunday to help deal with outages, a spokesman for the company said.
Customers were asked to not use appliances such as dryers, washing machines and air conditioners until Sunday at 9:45 p.m., when the voltage reduction was rescinded.
On Saturday, 4,500 customers were without power in Staten Island after a manhole fire near the Fox Hills substation. An attempt to repair it by using backup feeders caused an additional feeder to go out.
On Saturday night, the number of homes and businesses without power dropped to 2,800, and the majority were restored that night, the spokesman said.
The rest were restored by 11 a.m. on Sunday, with most customers only without power for a couple of hours at the most, the spokesman said.
On Monday morning, only three customers were still without power in Staten Island.
Electrical usage for a Sunday was the highest in Con Ed’s history for the five boroughs and Westchester. Usage peaked at 11,241 megawatts at 6 p.m., beating the previous record for Sunday usage of 10,866 MW set on August 14, 2005.
