Con Edison Prepares for Record Power Demand as NYC Bakes in Heat
A Week After Manhattan Went Dark, Con Edison Faces a Heat Wave
(Bloomberg) -- Consolidated Edison Inc. is forecasting record power demand for New York this weekend as a heat wave blankets the city.
“We’re ready for what the heat will bring,” President Tim Cawley told reporters gathered Friday at the utility’s headquarters in downtown Manhattan. “We haven’t identified any issues that would lead us to believe that the system isn’t ready.”
Cawley spoke at a company auditorium that has been converted into its emergency command center. Staffers at about a dozen groups of tables huddled over computers while screens on the walls tracked power demand, outages and the status of substations. Crews in the field are working extended 12-hour shifts as the heat builds, Cawley said.
ConEd is facing scrutiny after an outage last weekend left a broad swath of Manhattan in the dark, and is seeking to reassure customers who are facing what may be the hottest day of the year. Rolling blackouts not expected during this heat wave as projected demand of as much as 11,900 megawatts will still fall below the system’s maximum capacity of 13,200 megawatts, ConEd said. The utility has checked relay systems it blames for the blackout last week.
With plenty of available capacity, wholesale power prices were down in New York, averaging $20.25 in the hour ending at 3 p.m. on Friday, according to grid data compiled by Bloomberg. Natural gas prices also slipped Friday.
Avangrid Inc. said its New York State Electric & Gas and Rochester Gas & Electric utility units are taking steps to prepare for high demand during the heatwave, and urged customers to conserve energy, according to an emailed statement.
The National Weather Service issued an excessive heat watch starting Friday afternoon. Temperatures in New York are expected to reach 92 degrees Fahrenheit (33 Celsius) on Saturday and 94 degrees Sunday, according to the National Weather Service, with the heat index making it feel like 106 degrees at 5 p.m. Sunday evening.
The hottest temperature ever recorded in Central Park -- not including the heat index -- was 106 degrees on July 9, 1936.
A triathlon scheduled for the weekend in New York City was called off, along with a 10-mile (16-kilometer) marathon training session run in Central Park. Pools run by the city’s Parks Department are staying open to the general public for an extra hour. Horse racing was canceled for Saturday at the Saratoga Race Course about 180 miles north of the city. It’s been 13 years since extreme heat caused that to happen, according to the New York Racing Association.
ConEd earlier this week said it could not rule out isolated power failures as the heat builds and summer storms hit. The heat wave could bake the pavement and overheat electricity lines below. Widespread, heat-induced blackouts are rare in the region.
But ConEd has been pummeled by state and local politicians and regulators have begun investigations into the last blackout, which darkened Times Square, interrupted subway service and forced Madison Square Garden to evacuate. Governor Andrew Cuomo called the incident “unacceptable.”
Grid operators PJM Interconnection LLC and the New York Independent System Operator Inc. both said Friday they have plenty of generating capacity available. PJM expects Friday will be the day with highest demand, peaking at 150,076 megawatts, and has 169,888 megawatts of capacity scheduled to meet that demand.
NYISO is anticipating peak load of about 30,000 megawatts Friday, and has almost 43,000 megawatts available, according to a spokesman. Even as New Yorkers crank up their air conditioners at home over the weekend, offices will mostly be closed, easing some of the demand.
The biggest threat to the grid this weekend may be overheating equipment. Much of New York City’s system lies underground, protected from the elements by the pavement of sidewalks and streets. Most of the time, that’s a good thing, shielding wires and transformers from high winds and rain. But in high temperatures that linger for days, pavement soaks up heat and can warm the power equipment below.
“It’s not about instantaneous heat -- it’s accumulated heat,” said Javad Lavaei, an associate professor for the industrial engineering department at the University of California at Berkeley. Lavaei happened to be in New York, entering Lincoln Center, when Saturday’s blackout hit. “If you’ve got accumulated heat over four days,” he said, power equipment “may not work properly.”
--With assistance from Brian K. Sullivan and Millicent Dent.
To contact the reporters on this story: David R. Baker in San Francisco at dbaker116@bloomberg.net;Will Wade in New York at wwade4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Doan at ldoan6@bloomberg.net, Tina Davis, Pratish Narayanan
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