Con Ed Shuts Off Power to Lower Manhattan

[n2doc]

Source: NYT

As the surge of water pushed into parts of Lower Manhattan on Monday night, Consolidated Edison took the unprecedented step of cutting off power to customers because of weather.

The utility said it needed to do that to try to prevent damage to equipment stored underground so that power could be restored more quickly after the storm.


At 6:42 p.m., Con Ed shut down the first network at the southern tip of Manhattan, which serves 2,500 customers.

About 20 minutes later they turned off a second network in lower Manhattan that serves about 4,000 customers.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/10/28/nyregion/hurricane-sandy.html

[Berlum]

1. wow

[Edweird]

2. Yep. Underground powerlines is not all that good of an idea.

[bluemarkers]

5. sure they are

wind wrecks havoc on lines above ground.

[Edweird]

7. That's the least of your concerns.

[bluemarkers]

9. not following your line of thought

Been through hurricanes and underground lines are much easier to restore - no poles to replace, lines etc for miles and miles

I guess though, there is no good place for lines with a storm like this....

[Edweird]

12. Undeground is not easier to restore.

Underground is resistant to wind - that's all it has going for it. When underground is damaged it is eponentially more work, time, money and intrusion than overhead. Wait until the effects of all that saltwater on NYC's underground system show up. It's going to be a nightmare in every possible way.
Padmount transformers - those green boxes used with underground cable - put incredibly dangerous voltages at ground level. Flood, cars/equipment, vandalism, etc. expose people to those voltages.
Padmount transformers are a hassle to change out. Overhead transformers attach tangentially to the high voltage line. Padmounts are 'daisy chained. When one fails, it takes a LONG time to move connections on all the OTHER padmounts to isolate the bad one. This is incredibly time consuming. I can change out an overhead transformer in minutes. It takes hours for a pad mount.
Padmount transformers have to be replaced with the same type of transformer. A few years back we had a cold snap (in South Florida). Everyone ran space heaters which created a huge resistive load that blew out transformers. They ran out of padmounts. I can make something work with overhead - there is no latitude with underground.
I could go on and on about why underground isn't such a great idea, but I'm tired of typing about it. Besides, powerlines are what I do for a living so I'm sure you know much more about the pros and cons of this than I do.

[bluemarkers]

13. thanks!

of course there was no need to be sarcastic. I said I didn't understand your line of thought, thank you for explaining. I know several linemen and they work hard to keep power on, I thank them and you for all you do.

(as an aside, was just in NYC, my son lives there, unless there are some magical electrical lines, they are in trouble no matter where the lines are.)

[funkhowser1]

8. Underground power lines

Actually, they are a good idea. In FL, we've been begging the local utilities/governments to put power lines underground. Makes it less venerable to storms, wind, flying debris, falling trees. Luckily, have not experienced a direct hurricane hit, but we've been brushed by and the areas with underground lines continue humming along, while the rest of us wait for weather to break and crews to restore lines. And, visually, you don't have all those poles and wires strung all over the place. And, I remember up North in Ohio, freezing rain and falling trees taking down powerlines and being without power for days at a time during the cold winters. My sis who still lives there had a fireplace installed to enable heating the house for such instances.

Edit: Assume this is why I can no longer access the Statue of Liberty cam. Watching the Time Sqaure cam has been outright odd ... a handful of people on the sidewalks and a few cars here and there throughout the day.

[JDPriestly]

3. How far is that from Wall Street? Or does that include Wall Street?

[defacto7]

4. Wall Street would be lower Manhattan

Most buildings have generators for important things like security.

[SoapBox]

6. Wow is right.

[Ilsa]

10. Explosion at ConEd now on MSNBC. nt

[leftynyc]

11. There was an explosion

at a con ed plant in midtown. I'm not sure when that happened but know that my cousin in the east 30s has no power and neither does my friend on west 21st street.