In the United States, the electricity company Con Edison was the subject of new criticism, Monday, July 22, after a series of cuts that affected tens of thousands of homes, just over a week after a giant blackout in Manhattan. About 53,000 users were deprived of electricity Sunday evening, mainly in Brooklyn. By Monday morning, Con Edison had restored power to more than 30,000 of them and planned to do so by the afternoon for the 21,500 still in the dark.
Unlike the incident of July 13, following the failure of a high voltage line, it was the company itself which took the unilateral decision to stop supplying some of the users on Sunday at the end of day “To preserve vital equipment”. The energy supplier – with a monopoly on the New York market – said consumption reached a new record on Sunday at 6 p.m., with consumption of 12,063 megawatts on the third day of a heat wave on the East Coast.
Questioning of the local monopoly?
This arbitrary cut has earned sharp criticism from Con Edison, already criticized by the main political leaders of New York after the blackout of July 13, which had deprived 73,000 users of electricity. “I am extremely disappointed with Con Ed”New York mayor Bill de Blasio said during a press briefing Monday morning. He stressed that the decision to make unilateral cuts had been made “As it was starting to get dark, which posed real safety and security problems, which had to be addressed”.
In particular, the New York Police Department has deployed 200 additional officers to the affected areas and New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo has dispatched 200 state police officers to the scene. Bill de Blasio said he spoke with Con Edison chairman John McAvoy on Sunday and Monday, who only gave him ” no answer “ on the reasons for this cut and “On what [était] done to make sure it won’t happen again ”.
He called for a “Exhaustive investigation” on the two incidents, that of Sunday and the cut in Manhattan on July 13: “We have to ask ourselves whether Con Ed can meet future needs or whether we need to take a whole different approach to it. ” Mr. de Blasio notably mentioned the possibility of going through “A new entity”, if Con Ed did not give satisfaction. “We have been through this situation with Con Ed on many occasions.Andrew Cuomo wrote on Twitter on Sunday evening. They should have been better prepared. “
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