The heat "dome" keeps pushing the mercury up, and you know what that means: Con Edison is warning customers to expect scattered outages for the next few days. "This is Day 1 of a three-day battle for us," John Miksad, senior VP of Electric Operations says. How bad it is? Con Ed is forecasting that power usage today and tomorrow could break the company's all-time record. The previous high was 13,141 megawatts in August 2006.
"We're going to be in new territory, and for us that translates into a very high demand for electricity, potentially breaking all-time peaks today, tomorrow and then a weekend peak on Saturday," Miksad said. As such, the utility is asking customers, especially businesses, to try and cut down on their consumption. Not sure what you can do? They've got a whole lotta tips right here, though it is mostly common sense: turn off your A/C when you leave, make sure your doors and windows are closed, don't set your thermostats too low, etc., etc..
“Obviously when you have a sustained heat wave like this, it’s important for everyone to pitch in,” Con Edison spokesman Bob McGee said earlier today. Meanwhile if you want to learn more about how the utilities are handling the increased load, here is a good place to start.
