Con Ed Continues To Throttle Sheepshead's Power

Ned Berke -

With the temperature finally down to tolerable levels after a scorching weekend, Sheepshead Bay and the surrounding neighborhoods aren’t quite in the clear yet. The infrastructural damage Con Ed sustained from record-shattering energy usage is forcing the company to continue choking power output to Sheepshead Bay, Marine Park, Gerritsen Beach and Midwood, among other neighborhoods around New York City.

The good news is that Con Ed workers have restored service to more than 55,700 of 65,700 customers who lost power during the three-day heat wave. They began throttling power across its entire service area on Friday as a precaution to protect equipment and maintain service. With outages and gear damages rolling in over the weekend – which saw heat indexes surpass 100 degrees – crews were dispatched to repair the problems, a task still underway. Con Edison is asking customers to avoid using appliances such as washers, dryers, and other energy-intensive equipment, and to turn off lights and televisions when not needed. If high-energy equipment is needed, they ask that it be used at night, when demand is lower.

The service areas with reduced power output include:

  • In Staten Island: New Brighton, St. George, Tompkinsville, Brighton Heights, Ward Hill, Stapleton, Grymes Hill, Clifton, Silver Lake, Rosebank, Ft. Wadsworth, Grasmere, Concord, Arrochar, South Beach, Ocean Breeze, Midland Beach, Grant City, New Dorp, and Dongan Hills.
  • In Brooklyn and Queens: Sheepshead Bay, Marine Park, Gerritsen Beach, Midwood, Flatbush and East Flatbush, Williamsburg, Bedford Stuyvesant, Bushwick. Ocean Hill, Brownsville, Flatbush, and Prospect Heights, Corona, Elmhurst, Fresh Meadows, Jamaica Estates, Oakland Gardens, Hollis Hills, Hillcrest, Broad Channel, Howard Beach, Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, Woodhaven, Kew Gardens, and Kew Gardens Hills.
  • In Manhattan: Central and East Harlem.
  • In Westchester County:  parts of Yonkers, Dobbs Ferry, Hastings-on-Hudson and Greenburgh. Also Peekskill, Buchanan, Verplank, Croton-on-Hudson, Cortlandt, and parts of Ossining, Yorktown, and Briarcliff Manor. Also Mt. Vernon, parts of Bronxville, New Rochelle, North Pelham, Pelham, and Pelham Manor.

Residents can report power interruptions or service problems as well as view service restoration information online at www.conEd.com or by calling 1-800-75-CONED (26633). When reporting an outage, customers should have their Con Edison account number available, if possible, and report whether their neighbors also have lost power.

Given that our neighborhood remains on the list, and was also one of only two locations in the entire city that the company distributed dry ice, it’s likely that we were hit harder than most. Did you experience any power outages? Did you cut back on your electrical usage to try and help out? How did you cope with the heat?