A short circuit at a Con Edison substation in Brooklyn caused a series of brief blackouts last night across the city.
Power company officials say a power line in the Dumbo area failed around midnight.
“A high-voltage transmission line failure occurred at one of our Brooklyn substations around 11:55 p.m. Customers may have experienced a drop or surge of power at that time. Our teams are investigating and making the necessary repairs,” Con Edison wrote at the time in a message on social networks.
A fault on a high-tension transmission line occurred at one of our Brooklyn substations around 11:55pm. Customers may have experienced a power dip or surge at that time. Our crews are investigating and making necessary repairs.
— Con Edison (@ConEdison) December 15, 2023
Shortly before the blackout, police had responded to reports of an explosion at the electrical substation in that neighborhood.
A Sunset Park winemaker told us how this outage affected his business and reminded us of other historic blackouts in the city.
“When I opened I found the cameras turned off, I found it a little strange, but I didn’t give much thought to that, so I decided to arrive at seven and when they told me that the power went out, the light automatically goes out and the camera turns off. It wasn’t a big deal. I really remember that in ’77 that was a real blackout, that it went on for a day or so more or less,” said the winemaker.
No one was injured due to the outage, but the Fire Department reported that it had to respond to several calls for people trapped in the elevators.
