NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – Con Edison is preparing for an unusual summer in which more people are working from home, increasing demand on residential neighborhoods as usage drops in the central business districts of Manhattan.
Patrick McHugh, vice president of engineering and planning at Con Ed, told WCBS 880 that electricity overall is likely to be down this summer.
“This year we’re forecasting 12,000 megawatts. A typical summer is about 13,250,” he said.
But demand for that electricity is expected to shift as people continue to stay home because of the coronavirus.
While less electricity will be needed in big office buildings, that could mean more demand in residential neighborhoods in places like Brooklyn and Queens.
“We have identified some areas that we’ve seen, that we’re forecasting an increased load,” McHugh said. “Those are residential areas.”
Power grids in those residential areas may not be able to handle an all-day load because they have less capacity than grids in a place full of large buildings like Midtown.
City Council Member Andrew Cohen said there’s a fear that areas hardest hit by COVID-19 will then suffer from power outages this summer.
“We’re all very, very concerned that communities that are going to have the highest concentrations of people that have already been really hard hit with COVID, that we’re going to be able to maintain power to those communities during the peak summer season,” Cohen said.
McHugh said Con Edison is doing everything it can to prepare, upgrading equipment and buying generators to supplement residential grids.
“We are not going to know everything,” McHugh said. “We are not going to be able to predict this.”