Con Edison Blames Sensor Problem For Manhattan Blackout

By Micah Maidenberg

Consolidated Edison Inc. (ED) said it identified the cause of a blackout earlier this month that left about 63,000 customers without power on the West Side of Manhattan.

Con Edison said Monday a "flawed connection" between certain sensors and protective relays at the 65th Street substation caused the July 13 blackout. A relay detects abnormal conditions on electricity delivery systems and sends signals to circuit breakers to deal with the problems, according to the company.

Con Edison said it fixed the problem at the substation on 65th Street and has taken action to ensure similar problems don't affect other facilities.

"Our electrical delivery system continues to operate with multiple layers of relay protection," the company said Monday.

Con Edison said it reviewed 15 years of operating data about the facility on 65th Street to identify the problem and took equipment out of service there to conduct testing.

The company struggled with outages elsewhere on its network in New York this summer.

On July 21, more than 50,000 customers lost power during a heat wave in New York. The following night, a rainstorm and subsequent flooding affected power in sections of Brooklyn and Queens, with some 13,000 customers losing power.

Write to Micah Maidenberg at micah.maidenberg@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 29, 2019 16:12 ET (20:12 GMT)

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