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Consolidated Edison apologized on Sunday for a power outage that left a broad band of the country's most densely populated urban area steaming in the dark for five hours.
Con Edison officials, who operate the city's electricity grid, said there was "a significant disruption of electric transportation" at 6:47 pm On Saturday, 72,000 of its downtown Manhattan customers no longer have food until late at night.
But they failed to better understand the underlying cause of this failure, which was celebrated on the occasion of the 42nd anniversary of one of the most famous failures in the city's history.
Officials of Ed Edison announced Sunday that the agency would conduct an investigation "to determine the root cause of the incident".
Tim Cawley, President of Con Edison, said redundancies were being built into the power grid to prevent failures from cascading, but that "this event has somehow gone beyond that goal and resulted in a significant outage of the station side Where is".
The sudden power outage disrupted five subway lines and shut down many of the city's most popular entertainment sources, including Carnegie Hall and many more. Broadway, and even mid-song performer Jennifer Lopez at a sold-out concert at Madison Square Garden.
New Yorkers and tourists invaded the dark streets as elected officials rushed to castigate Con Edison for failing to contain the failure before it spreads.
Senator Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, called on the federal Department of Energy to investigate Con Edison and how he has invested in the city's electricity grid. "This type of massive failure is totally preventable thanks to good investments in our network," Schumer said on Sunday.
Mayor Bill de Blasio returned from Iowa where he was campaigning for the Democratic nomination for the presidency.
"There is no disruption of traffic or transit," Blasio said at a press conference Sunday afternoon at a Con Edison control center in Manhattan. "Things have become normal again."
He reiterated that there was no indication that terrorism had played a role in the blackout and he added that the system was not overloaded with energy demand.. "It was not a cyber attack or an act of physical terrorism," said de Blasio.
According to the fire department, no one was injured as a result of a power outage, but the timing was wrong to pick up the elevator.
Firefighters and paramedics responded to about 900 emergency calls arising from the power outage, ranging from structural fires to automatic alarms, according to agency data dating from 7:30 pm. at 11:59 pm Approximately 400 people were locked in elevators, said Fire Marshal Daniel A. Nigro.
"Some of them were quite difficult, involving gaps and blind holes," he said, adding that everyone had been safely removed.
Approximately 700 calls were routed through the city's 911 system, with the other 200 verbal requests as firefighters and paramedics responded to other calls. Jim Long, a spokesman, said resources, such as fire trucks and ambulances, had been relocated from other parts of New York City to help with the "very big rush" calls .
"There were no injuries, no deaths, no one was crushed," said Mr. Long, adding that "we have responded to many of them and have them processed quickly. "
Con Edison stated that the failure apparently originated from a problem that occurred at a substation on West 49th Street and involved six local power distribution systems in individual neighborhoods, including Midtown West, Rockefeller. Center and Times Square. Electricity was lost in an area ranging from 72nd Street to 32nd Street and from the west end of downtown to Sixth Avenue.
John McAvoy, President and Chief Executive Officer of Con Edison, suggested that there was a mechanical failure, but noted that the utility can not know the cause until the investigation is complete.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was more specific, stating that the failure had begun with an explosion and a fire in a substation, which had caused the loss of electricity and malfunction. other substations.
Richard Berkley, executive director of the New York Public Utility Law Project, a consumer advocacy group, said the power outage raised the question of whether Con Edison had focused enough on resilience. of his system.
Con Edison calls on state regulators to raise electricity and gas rates by about $ 1.5 billion, Berkley said, and Saturday's failure could affect the outcome of this case.
Before Hurricane Sandy reached the city in 2012, Con Edison had devoted "tremendous money" to the reliability of his system. But the storm proved that its resilience posed serious problems, which shows that Con Edison had to work to "prevent an area of failure from destroying the entire system," Berkley said.
Cuomo criticized Con Edison about it Saturday night, saying the public service should be better able to contain the problems.
Aaron Randle contributed to the report.
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