Thousands of New Yorkers lost power across Queens, Brooklyn, and The Bronx Monday night and into Tuesday in the middle of a record-breaking heat wave that’s putting New York City’s electrical grid to the test.
Con Edison, which provides power to NYC and Westchester, has urged customers to conserve energy to prevent further outages.
New York City’s mercury rose above 100 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday, marking the earliest point in a year that the city has ever recorded triple-digit temperatures. The record-breaking temperatures coincide with a hotly contested Democratic primary election, and polls are set to close at 9 p.m., when the temperature is expected to drop only to 90 degrees.
Con Edison crews worked throughout the night and into Tuesday to restore power to thousands of customers, though the city is still experiencing scattered outages as of Tuesday afternoon, as New Yorkers crank the air conditioning. The company said it has restored power to 34,000 residents in The Bronx since the outages began, and as of Tuesday afternoon, most of the remaining outages are in Brooklyn and Queens.
At 7 a.m. Tuesday morning, Con Edison urged customers in Brooklyn, particularly Bedford Stuyvesant, Bushwick, Greenpoint, and Williamsburg, to “conserve energy while crews repair equipment.” Con Edison reduced voltage in the area by eight percent to “protect equipment and maintain service while repairs are made.” In the early afternoon, Con Edison urged all customers in New York City to cut their energy usage.
“We have multiple networks across our grid, and conservation helps reduce stress within each one,” Con Edison wrote in a post on X. “By working with all our customers to cut usage during peak demand, we protect the system and support neighborhoods individually.”
Wednesday is set to bring a small reprieve from the heat and humidity, but New Yorkers can still expect extreme temperatures in the high 90s. The city is expected to cool substantially on Thursday, with scattered showers and thunderstorms expected across the metro area. New York’s National Weather Service has placed New York City under an extreme heat warning through 8 p.m. Tuesday evening, at which point the warning will turn into a heat advisory through 7 p.m. Wednesday evening.
Mayor Eric Adams urged New Yorkers on Monday to limit their electrical use, but assured residents they “can help keep the lights on AND stay cool.”
“Avoid using large appliances in the middle of the day, turn off unnecessary lights, and only use A/C in the room you’re in,” Adams wrote in a Monday evening post on X.
New York City opens public cooling centers when the temperature remains 95 degrees or hotter for two days in a row or when it breaches triple digits. The cooling centers, which provide free air conditioning, opened in NYC Tuesday morning and will remain open through tomorrow.
