WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. By John F. Bailey. July 16, 2007: Con Edison invested $1.4 Billion in the metropolitan area preparing for this summer’s energy demand and thanks to that investment, the utility was able to supply 12.5 Megawatts of electricity last Wednesday to the Metropolitan Area at the peak of last week’s 2-1/2 day heatwave. Westchester used 3,000 Megawatts of the total power output. A Con Edision attributed improved Westchester performance under heatwave demands to $700 Million of improvements in Westchester alone to infrastructure.

The heat moved in last Monday with temperatures hitting the low 90s rising to the mid 90s by Wednesday with high humidity. On Monday the 9^th, Con Ed delivered 12,135 megawatts in its metropolitan area, with 2,400 to 3,000 megawatts of that to Westchester County. On Tuesday the 10^th, Con Ed supplied 12,478 megawatts. The Tuesday juice level was some 600 megawatts short of the all-time record output of 13,141 megawatts produced last August 2.

The Reliability Factor

Asked the reason why Con Edison handled the first heat wave in stride, Chris Olert, Con Edison spokesman said “Reliability…we’re the most reliable utility in the nation.” He said that the heat wave was only two days in duration, and complimented the public’s cooperation by conserving as factors in the unwavering supply in the face of about as humid and hot as New York gets.

In Westchester County, Olert said the new reliability in the face of the demand was attributable, too to “investing 100s of millions of dollars in Westchester” to upgrade equipment, and aggressive tree trimming which prevented more outages due to storms on Wednesday that broke the heatwave.

Olert said that since last summer, Con Edision invested $700 million in Westchester County for new cable, new transformers, and monitoring equipment, and $400 Million for a new substation in Dunwoodie. Asked if the amount of equipment upgrading was an indication that Con Edison had allowed its Westchester infrastructure to become inadequate for the power demands, Olert denied that saying, “Not necessarily. This was the first test of the year and based on that , we’re going to do what we have to do to finetune it.” He said  the company evaluates their grid every year around September 1 and maps out maintenance and equipment upgrades.

Indian Point Supplies one third.

In light of renewed efforts of county officials to close Indian Point, WPCNR asked Olert how much Indian Point generated of the 3,000 megawatts supplied Westchester last week. Olert placed the Indian Point contribution at one-third.

Commenting on the possibility of Indian Point closure, Olert said “Any source of generation lost has to be met by an equal number of demand reduction or made up for in some way.” He noted that Indian Point generates far less emissions than possible alternate sources using fossil fuels. He said windmill power generation and solar power generation was not practical, pointing out that to replace the power generated by Indian Point by solar energy, you would have to have enough solar panels equal to 32 Central Parks.