Link <:)=

NEW YORK, July 15 (Reuters) - New York City said Wednesday it would file a lawsuit of at least $3 million against utility Consolidated Edison (NYSE:ED - news) for its role in last week's heat-related blackout in which some 200,000 residents lost power.

New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who has been highly critical of how the utility handled the demand during a five-day heat wave which claimed 31 lives, said the city wants to see ``intelligent, creative planning'' from the utility giant. ``We're also seeking damages,'' he added.

The suit, filed in Manhattan State Supreme Court, seeks a penalty of ``at least $3 million on the Consolidated Edison Company of New York for its failure on July 6 through July 7 1999 to provide electrical service to numerous neighborhoods throughout the city.''

Washington Heights, a poor neighborhood of approximately 210,000 people in upper Manhattan, was the worst-hit area, with power out from about 10 p.m. on July 6 until 5 p.m. on July 7, after several days of 90-degree plus heat caused record power demands as residents tried to keep cool.

Michael Hess, the city's corporation counsel, said the suit had three aims: ``to come up with a plan that would take into account the maintenance of a modern system,'' to win ``money damages to the city'' and make restitutions to residents, and ``to have (ConEd) submit under oath what really happened.''

Giuliani said ConEd was ``being defensive rather than creative ... What we'd like to see from them is a plan.''

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), July 15, 1999

Answers

Sigh......

Too many people, too many toys, too few power generation plants.

-- Jon Williamson (jwilliamson003@sprintmail.com), July 15, 1999.

What friggin babies! They think that they are entitled to electricity like it was air. What next? Sueing Toys-R-Us because they didn't stock enough Beanie Babies? It's a product and there is only so much to go around. Get a Clue!

I swear, if they get any money from this I'm gonna charge people during the next blackout just for the priviledge of looking at the lights in my house.

"Step this way ladies and gentlemen for just $5 you too can see an actual lightbulb work!"

-TECH32-

-- TECH32 (TECH32@NOMAIL.COM), July 15, 1999.

I was vacationing across the river from NYC when this happened. Although admittedly some parts of NJ lost power for awhile, when I found out the electric went off in some parts of the city, I knew instinctively it would be Harlem. Can't let the yuppies on 57th break a sweat.Giulliani should give the damages to the residents of the affected area.

-- Gia (Laureltree7@hotmail.com), July 15, 1999.

Gia,

You bring up an interesting point that I haven't seen referenced in Y2k discussions here for awhile.

I've been told that--in the event of a power outage--where possible, emergency facilities and hospitals would be prioritized to receive power, followed by residents, followed by businesses.

But how easy is it to conduct this "triage?"

CAN a utility decide to supply electricity to one neighborhood, but not another? If so, who makes the "triage" decisions?

Very curious.

(Also--with regard to the NYC mayor--can you say "Senate race?"

:)

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), July 16, 1999.

You almost HAVE to "black out" neighborhoods - becasue only individual "Large" companies can be uniquely tripped off line.

Most big industrial customers include this kind of triage in their (lower) industrial rate plans too. There is no realistic way to go through a neighborhood and trip "off" a whole bunch of single (non-important) customers while keeping a few "vital" ones energized though in the same general area being fed from the same neighborhood power sub-station - do you see the difference?

You can trip off substations that serve an entire area so nobody has power - though that DID NOT happen in this case (The failure was in overloaded cables under the streets feeding this area!)

- and you can trip off single very large loads in an area while keeping power to evreybody else.

BUT - and I don't understand why the fed's continue to let this triage be used - you cannot turn off power to an area and still keep vital loads in that area supplied. The only way to do it is to individually go to each house's and each business's (or to each block feeder) master breaker and individually trip off every unwanted household. Then lock the breaker so the owner won't turn his own power back on. Then restore power to the neighborhood sub-station so the "vital" load can turn its lights back on. (If your electricians get that far without being run off by "observers" who see their power being rationed.)

Then watch that "vital load" get turned right back off again by angry neighbors.......

-- Robert A Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), July 16, 1999.