Gioia, Gianaris Recall Blackout Of 2006

Assemblymember Gianaris At a press conference in Sunnyside on Friday, July 17, City Councilmember Eric Gioia said he had forgotten earlier in the week that July 17 marked the third anniversary of the 2006 power blackout in Northwest Queens, a disaster that left some borough residents without electricity, and even water, for as long as nine days. But when on July 16 the New York state Public Service Commission (PSC) fined Con Edison $5 million for failure to meet reliability standards pertaining to that blackout and other power outages as recent as one in June, he and Assemblymember Michael Gianaris organized an outdoor meeting near the Sunnyside Arch on Queens Boulevard on June 17. There they declared that after three years Con Ed, in Gioia's words, "still hasn't learned its lesson" about how it might prevent future blackouts. They added that even the PSC, a regulatory body they've often found laggard, had expressed its disgust by means of a heavy financial penalty.

Gioia specified that in Queens and the rest of the city, Con Edison is in the same mode as it was in 2006. Instead of using so-called smart meters that can spot critical points during hot days and nights in summer, he said, Con Ed sticks to its timeworn program of firing up the power plants and loading on energy to meet demands made by use of air conditioners and other electrical devices. Such a massive application, in contrast to a more strategic one that smart metering is said to offer, strains the power grid to the breaking point; and experience has shown that breakdowns occur and at the current rate are likely to reoccur, he said. He and Gianaris pointed out that Con Ed is testing smart meters in Westchester County but has yet to try them out in the city. Gioia charged that any meter replacement in the city is made only with equally antiquated ones.

Councilmember Gioia The blackout that began the night of July 17, 2006 was recalled by Gioia as he mentioned being called to the Berkeley Towers, on 52nd Street and 39th Drive in Woodside, where he discovered residents initially had neither power nor water. Barbara Coleman, a Berkeley Towers resident, also recalled for the Sunnyside audience how a wheelchair-bound neighbor returned to the lobby of her building to find she could not use the elevator. Her story reminded everyone of the inconvenience or even peril the blackout caused. She observed that new apartment houses are going up on Queens Boulevard, adding to the electrical requirements that could cause breakdowns anew on an unimproved grid. Alyssa Bonilla, president of Sunnyside Shines, the Queens Boulevard-Greenpoint Avenue Business Improvement District, recalled losses, some of them ruinous, that small business owners suffered throughout the afflicted area three years ago. Another such occurrence would be unbearable, she said.

Calling Con Ed a "thoroughly unacceptable monopoly", Gianaris noted that its shareholders have been compensated continuously and suggested that penalties directly applied to profits might force the company to reform.

Consolidated Edison issued a statement in response on July 17 asserting that the utility "remains committed to providing the most reliable electric delivery system in the country", adding: "Over the past three years, we have invested $4.6 billion in infrastructure enhancements throughout our system and we are working with the state Public Service Commission on smart grid proposals.

"We have implemented an enhanced outage tracking system and have also made significant improvements in the way we operate, communicate and respond during emergencies."

Gioia stated, "... Instead of using so-called smart meters that can spot critical points during hot days and nights in summer, he said, Con Ed sticks to its timeworn program of firing up the power plants and loading on energy to meet demands made by use of air conditioners and other electrical devices.

Calling Con Ed a "thoroughly unacceptable monopoly", Gianaris noted that its shareholders have been compensated continuously and suggested that penalties directly applied to profits might force the company to reform.