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NY lawmakers schedule hearing into Con Edison's recent blackouts

New York State Senate and Assembly's standing committees have scheduled a joint public hearing Sept. 3 into recent blackouts that plagued Consolidated Edison Co. of New York Inc.'s service territory in New York City.

In an Aug. 19 notice, New York's respective Assembly and Senate standing committees on energy issues and on corporations and authorities announced they will be holding a joint hearing to receive oral testimony from witnesses on the recent blackouts in Con Edison's service territory. Most of those events occurred in southeast Brooklyn and Manhattan, including a five-hour blackout in Manhattan on the evening of July 13 that interrupted service to approximately 72,000 customers.

"The purpose of this hearing is to examine the reliability of utility electric power systems … and explore ways of ensuring that such power systems maintain reliability into the future," said the notice. A Con Edison spokesperson confirmed that senior management representatives will be attending the hearing.

The New York State Public Service Commission and the regional reliability entity, the Northeast Power Coordinating Council, are both still investigating the July 13 blackout. The PSC is also investigating other Con Edison power outages that occurred in July. Citing the reliability issues, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, has threatened to revoke ConEd's state-issued operating license and place the private investor-owned utility under public ownership.

Con Edison's internal investigation initially concluded that the July 13 power shortages were triggered after its West 49th Street substation suffered a "significant electrical transmission disturbance." The outage then spread when both the primary and backup relay protection systems at the utility's West 65th Street substation failed to contain it on a faulty 13,000-volt distribution cable.

In an Aug. 1 earnings presentation, Con Edison's parent company Consolidated Edison Inc. said the company expects that the July 13 blackout will reduce its third-quarter revenue by $5 million.

Meanwhile, hearings are underway at the PSC regarding requests by Con Edison to increase its rates by $485 million for its electricity division and by $210 million for its natural gas delivery system. The utility, which serves New York City and Westchester County, is seeking an increase in customer rates to recover rising operating and capital costs in a general rate case proceeding with state regulators.