After 3 Days of Blackouts, Con Edison Promises Infrastructure Upgrades

Following 72 hours of intermittent power failure for , a Con Edison spokesman said the problem is due to increased “usage in the area.”

The explanation came after  to the subway, nearby apartment buildings, restaurants and even the NYPD's 78th Precinct. 

The on-and-off blackouts caused .

“This is ridiculous, I can’t tell you how exhausted I am,” said Eyal Hen, who owns the nearby and . “Three days in a row and we’re losing business, losing thousands and thousands of dollars. I can’t even talk about it anymore.”

For those wondering, the growth in demand is not due to the . “We already have engineered for that, separately from the surrounding community,” said Chris Olert, the electric company's assistant director of media relations.

Rather, it's from general growth in the area.

The explanation will not come to a surprise to Frank and Jan Reina, who said they has been dealing with power outages in their apartment at the corner of Flatbush and Bergen since 2006.

“This is a yearly event, each summer there are manhole fires and we lose electricity,” Frank said. “It’s reoccurring and it it’s always the same manholes too.”

“There has to be an over-drain on the grid. In this area, there’s not enough infrastructure to supply these homes,” Frank said. “This neighborhood has become so much more populated by residents but especially new restaurants that use a lot of electricity and I don’t think the infrastructure can handle it all.”

Olert said Con Edison will be upgrading the equipment to handle the increased demand.

“After a series of equipment failures, the company will be installing more new equipment to upgrade electrical service to the community. We apologize for the inconvenience,” Olert wrote in an e-mail.

“Over the next few weeks, residents will see crews in the area frequently to improve service.”

As a temporary fix, Con Ed has installed above-ground cables, called “shunts,” to deliver additional power, he added.

As to whether the lockout of 8,000 union workers Sunday that caused managers and contractors to take over repair work was a factor in the outages, Olert said a vehement "no."

“The job action has nothing to do with the physics of what’s in the street or our ability to repair it,” he said.

“The women ard men who are out there working on Bergen street are management employees (not contractors), many of whom have come up through the ranks. Con Edison is not shortchanging the people of that neighborhood,” he added.