The Grid Can’t Keep Up With the City’s Summer Heat

By Y.M. Lowy

Last week’s heatwave pushed New York City’s electrical grid to its limits, leaving thousands without power and raising questions about how the city handles summer heat.

From Sunday through Wednesday, about 110,000 Con Edison customers across the five boroughs lost power for a few hours at a time. That’s roughly 3 percent of the city losing power in scattered outages. Experts say it might now be a regular part of hot summer days in the city.

The reason? More people are using more electricity, while older infrastructure struggles to keep up. 

Much of the issue comes down to old transmission lines. Some are a hundred years old and not built for today’s load with electric cars, ACs, and heat pumps putting more pressure on the system.

Con Edison said its crews kept power flowing for 97 percent of customers during one of the hottest stretches in years. They also explained that reducing voltage helps prevent bigger, longer outages.

With more hot days on the horizon, this probably won’t be the last time the grid gets tested. Accuweather says NYC could see 16 days of 90 degrees or more this summer.