Brooklyn power station failure causes lights to flicker at midnight in NYC
New York City’s energy supply was momentarily disrupted, with lights flickering in parts of the city for a fraction of a second and some elevators failing, when a power substation in Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn, experienced an isolated high-voltage malfunction late Thursday, officials said.
Con Edison, New York City’s largest utility supplier, said that a transmission line failed around 11:55 p.m. on Thursday. Most of the city was likely affected by the momentary power outage, according to Con Edison.
The disruption stemmed from a fault in a 27-kilovolt feeder at Con Edison’s Farragut Substation that also sparked a small fire at the riverside site, said Zach Iscol, the city’s emergency management commissioner.
The burst of fire was visible from Manhattan, said Sean Scott, a 30-year-old software developer who watched from his apartment in the Financial District.
“I saw a flicker, and then there was kind of a soft boom, and I looked north toward the Manhattan Bridge and saw a little fireball from beyond the bridge,” Scott said. “It was a little bit startling at first, but very calm after. The electricity stayed on.”
Though the citywide effects were minimal, even split-second power outages can cause equipment failures in escalators and elevators. The city conducted at least nine or 10 elevator rescues, according to Con Edison.
The New York City Housing Authority reported that elevators failed in three buildings in the Bronx and six in Brooklyn, according to the city’s Office of Emergency Management.
At Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan, elevators and escalators were out of service shortly after midnight, according to the Long Island Rail Road.
Matthew Ketschke, president of Con Edison of New York, said the energy company was investigating what caused the incident. “It will probably take us a little while to figure out exactly what failed,” he told reporters early Friday morning.
“There was a voltage dip — essentially people saw a flicker in their lights,” Ketschke explained. “It was some form of short circuit in a piece of high-voltage equipment that was isolated.”
Ketschke said such incidents are rare but not unheard-of. Circuit breakers isolated the malfunctioning piece of equipment, Ketschke said. He said he did not believe the incident was weather-related.
“We have multiple redundant sets of transformers so that the lights stay on if you have one of these,” Ketschke said, adding that the power dip lasted “less than a tenth of a second.”
Con Edison said its crews would make any necessary repairs.
A spokesman for the state’s Public Service Department, James Denn, said Con Edison must complete an in-depth investigation into the power disruption and provide its findings to the state.
The Public Service Department is “closely engaged in the investigation and will take appropriate regulatory steps as more information becomes available,” Denn said in an email.
Gov. Hochul, a Buffalo Democrat, was briefed on the outage on Friday morning, according to her office.
Mayor Adams said at a news conference that he had seen the lights flicker late Thursday night. “Thank God there was no loss of life,” he said.
With Michael Gartland
