NYC’s Bloomberg Says Con Ed to Invest $250 Million to Harden Grid & Other Utilities

At a Dec. 6 press conference, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg offered an update on the city’s plans to renovate its infrastructure to withstand future storms. Two big players in the restoration efforts will be Verizon, which saw 95% of its telecom network with copper wiring go down in lower Manhattan because of Superstorm Sandy, and ConEd, which had been working to improve its electrical grid before the storm and plans to make a major investment in it in the near future.

Bloomberg said in a press statement, “Con Ed recognizes that in order to withstand a Category 2 hurricane, it needs to significantly harden its electric, gas and steam systems. And to do that, I am glad to announce that Con Ed has committed to moving forward in the coming months with an initial investment of $250 million. Two or three years ago, or three or four years ago, we had big blackouts and brownouts in this city when it became hot in the summer. We just had a record hot summer and we had almost no blackouts, so a lot of their work, a lot of their investment, is really paying off, and it’s exactly the kind of thing that we need all utilities to do.

“We’ll also work to modernize our energy infrastructure by incentivizing large buildings and hospitals to invest in co-generation systems — which allow them to generate their own heat and power. That has worked to a great extent. We will work with Governor Cuomo to explore how we can accelerate investments in distributed energy, micro-grids, energy storage and smart grid technologies. And to strengthen our communications infrastructure, we’re just going to have to explore how we can tap into mobile telecommunications trucks.

“In an age of fiber optics, we can’t be so dependent on traditional copper wiring. Verizon I think learned that lesson during Sandy, which took out an astonishing 95 percent of its copper network in downtown Manhattan. They are now rebuilding better and smarter with fiber, but full restoration will take months.”