A fire at a National Grid substation in Liverpool on Friday morning sparked outages in several local communities.
/ Bill Ali
A spokesperson confirms that the New York State Public Service Commission is investigating Friday's power outage that affected some 17,000 National Grid customers.
"I can say that we are looking into the outages." PSC spokesman James Denn told CNY Central's Jim Kenyon in an email on Monday.
After a fire knocked out a power substation on Hopkins Road in Salina, another failure took place at the substation on Teall Avenue in Syracuse. The power outages forced doctors to postpone operations at North Medical Center, caused traffic problems in Salina and Clay and postponed the Syracuse Chiefs baseball game at Alliance Bank stadium.
During the outage, National Grid sent a phone message to 40,000 customers asking them to conserve energy.
National Gird is encouraging customers to use these tips to lower energy consuption: close the blinds, turn the thermostat up a few degrees, use programmable thermostats, turn off ceiling fans, decreasing water heater temperature, turn off and unplug electronics, use light timers or motion detectors, keep the refrigerator around 37-40 degrees, and plant a tree.
National Grid Regional Executive Melanie Littlejohn says crews are installing a new transformer at the Teall Avenue substation along with new equipment at the Hopkins Road facility. Littlejohn says the utility is "prepared" to handle tomorrow's anticipated demand when temperatures are expected to climb into the '90's. She says utility officials have been meeting throughout the day in anticipation of the hot weather.
Never the less, Littlejohn is urging customers to conserve energy by increasing the settings on air conditioners, drawing blinds and drapes, and turning off unused appliances. She points out that by this time of year, Central New York averages 7 days of 90 degree temperatures and above, but so far in 2012 there have been 14 days above 90 degrees.
Friday's power outages highlight the findings of the New York State Public Service Commission's recent "2011 Electric Reliability Performance Report" which mentions a $2 million penalty against National Grid for failing to meet a particular target for capital projects.
The report found that frequency of power outages "remains poor" but says that may be the result of a new paperless reporting system employed by National Grid. Overall the PSC found the "company achieved both of its reliability targets comprising four consecutive years of positive performance." Littlejohn sees the report as proof that National Grid's $1.5 billion investment in infrastructure is increasing reliable performance.
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