August 23, 2006
City Thinks Con Ed is a Lying Liar
The Office of Emergency Management has decided to stop relying on Con Ed-supplied information on power outages, after the July Queens blackout mess that affected about 300,000. OEM Commissioner Joseph Bruno said that the fact that Con Ed said only 1700 customers were without power on July 20, later raising it to 25,000 customers (and customers equal entire buildings, with indeterminate number of people in them), was cause for the city to start sending canvassers on the street to get better estimates. The "Power Outage Response Team" will be made up of NYPD, FDNY, and other city officials. Comissioner Bruno said, "We have never seen Con Ed be off by a factor of 10, as we’ve seen here... We are no longer accepting those [Con Ed] numbers as we had for years."
While Commissioner Bruno didn't come out and say Con Ed was lying, the implication is pretty clear: You can't trust Con Ed. This is a far cry from Mayor Bloomberg saying to Queens that Con Ed CEO Kevin Burke needed a thank you. Anyway, City Councilman Peter Vallone was a little more forceful during a hearing: "[Con Ed is] either pathetically incompetent and need to resign or criminally negligent and need to go jail. That is inexcusable, that they're misleading, in fact -- lying to the commissioner responsible for responding to an emergency." As was Councilman Eric Gioia: "[Con Ed has a] pretty clear history of deceit. One of my great frustrations was what I was seeing with my own eyes was not the information you were getting."
We hope the city has figured out a way for canvassers to get an accurate picture efficiently - Commissioner Bruno did say his nightmare would be people stranded in subways. And be sure to check out the full page ad that Con Ed took out to "empathize" with Queens residents but not totally apologize. And the Queens blackout lasted for 10 days (or so, depending on where) - here's a look at what was happening on the fifth day.
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Power has been out on 4th St. btwn 7th and 8th ave. in Park Slope since 11:30 last night.
Second time this week.
i was around Hunter college last night and my friend told me that on his way over the church by the 77st train station seemed to be on fire. a doorman the told us he heard that there was an "explosion" on the train and that the power had flicked on and off, multiple residents calling to complain.
wtf is going on, i tried to watch the news this morning but no mention...anyone?
The people in Queens complained during the blackout that the slow response would never happen in Manhattan…yet I haven’t heard anything about these hearings addressing the problems that we had in Murray Hill for days.
Ok back to the Astoria Blackout.
This comment is to all of you out there who, like me, complained about the blackout when it was going on. Many of us swore not to be screwed by ConEd when bill time came and well, that time has come. I got my bill with my paltry three dollar credit and I want to know, what is the response? Am I the only person calling and saying that I am not paying this bill? Yeah I got my spoiled food check, but I still had to pay for bottled water every day, ice a few times, lunch each day (which I would normally bring from home each morning) dinner out five nights in a row and entertainment to avoid sitting in a 100 degree studio apartment.
So what is it going to be?
I know that ConEd is a bitch to deal with on the phone and their phone staff is among the rudest and most ignorant in the nation, but are you fighting these insulting bills or just paying them and being thankful for our air conditioners and new mild weather?
Bill,
I don't get why you or anyone else should fight the bill they're getting from Con Ed. They're billing you based on the amount of electricity you had consumed. If you were blacked out, then your meter would have stopped spinning and you wouldn't owe them anything for that duration, which is already reflected on the bill.
How would one go about assigning a value to the pain and suffering caused by the blackout?
Hey BigJ & Bill,
Bill isn't questioning the bill itself, he's asking where does the other compensation arrive? He probably spent more on the items he describes than on the electricity for the whole month.
So they question is, "If I don't get compensation, should I take it out of the bill."
Normally, you are doing something illegal if you just refuse to pay. I don't know what the legal position is, on this issue.
But here's what you can do: You can switch from ConEd to some other supplier. They still control the wires, but you don't have to give them the profit from your bills any more. Maybe when they loose lots of residential & commercial customers they will treat their customers better.
Hey, maybe if everyone dumps ConEd, the entire infrastructure should be handed over to another supplier? Wouldn't THAT be sweet justice? Until that supplier fails, of course, but this is free will; you have to keep switching.
I'm going to find another supplier. I hate monopolies.
I think the value of the pain in suffering can be directly linked to the amount of monetary output that I incurred as a result of this blackout. (I am referencing my situation because I am a typical single renter, but it going to be very different for people who have children, elderly or ill family members). I will say that I lost not only food, but money due to the fact that I had to eat dinner out five nights in a row (which I never do) and buy lunch all week (again, I never do that). I am careful with my money and because of neglect on ConEd's part I am out about $70 for meals, water and ice for last month and oh guess what, my bill is $70 for the month of July. The month of July is my most expensive bill to date and this is the month in which the following happened: three days before the blackout I browned out and couldn’t use much electricity at all, in fact I turned my air off more than it was on; one week I was blacked out completely and had no access to air conditioning let alone a fan, a light, TV or warm water, then for four days following the black out my power was limited and spotty. And I know I am not alone, so my question is: Is three dollars enough for us? I know it isn’t for me. As for pain and suffering, leave that to the lawyers of the families with children, sick or (now) dead family members.
i think the moral of the blackout story is "get a real job so you don't have to live in queens".
"I don't get why you or anyone else should fight the bill they're getting from Con Ed. They're billing you based on the amount of electricity you had consumed. If you were blacked out, then your meter would have stopped spinning and you wouldn't owe them anything for that duration, which is already reflected on the bill.
How would one go about assigning a value to the pain and suffering caused by the blackout?"
#1. It's flip to say that the only damage is "pain and suffering" -- as #7 pointed out, there's direct economic damage that extends well beyond payment for power.
#2. In some circumstances, it's not a total blackout -- there's power, but not enough to run appliances. In those cases it would be unconscionable to charge for the useless power supplied.
To all,
I'm surprised by the collectice lack of knowledge of the distribution of power. First off, I want to address interlards comment.
"Hey, maybe if everyone dumps ConEd, the entire infrastructure should be handed over to another supplier? Wouldn't THAT be sweet justice? Until that supplier fails, of course, but this is free will; you have to keep switching."
That's not how the business works. Supply of electricity is broken up into generation and distribution. You can buy your power by choosing an ESCO or the existing utiliy.
However, no matter which energy supplier you choose, your utility will continue to deliver the energy to your home or business and will respond to service emergencies.
Con Edison is the electric distribution company in NYC. You CANNOT escape this fact. Con Ed is a publically owned company but also completely regulated by the PSC. As a matter of fact, they can only earn a certain percent of your money as profit! It's actually a tiny percent.
#2, Bill said, "one week I was blacked out completely and had no access to air conditioning let alone a fan, a light, TV or warm water, then for four days following the black out my power was limited and spotty."
The same principle of how your electric usage is metered applies. You didn't use power during the blackout and you used LESS power when they limited the supply. Therefore, you only got billed for the small amount of power you actually used! And if for some reason your bill still seems high, that's because you USED it. You're paying for the power for the other 2 weeks that you were able to use. Electric rates are also higher in the summer because the cost per KWH is higher (this is in the generation side and not part of con edison).
As for the pain and suffering, should the utility be responsible for paying for the collective suffering? The answer is yes, and that's the $3 compensation you got. Apparently they must have done a justifiable cost calculation somewhere to attributes value to the suffering.
Personally, I think we should not whine. What about the reliable power that you've gotten the other 355 days? Ask other people that live OUTSIDE of NYC and find out how often they lose power. You have gotten SPOILED with the reliability that all you can do is complain of the suffering it's caused. If you want to do something about it, complain to your local government to pressure the PSC for more oversight on the way Con Ed spends its money (because the PSC dictates that as well).
- BigJ
amen BigJ. i was gonna bring up the point about the higher bill being attributed to the fact that costs are higher in the summer (or something to that effect)...but i figured i'd let someone else do it.
"Ask other people that live OUTSIDE of NYC and find out how often they lose power. You have gotten SPOILED with the reliability that all you can do is complain of the suffering it's caused."
I lived within the city limits of Boston for 8 years before moving to Brooklyn in Dec. 2005.
Lost power in Boston (8 years) = 0
Lost power in Brooklyn (8 months) = 2
Hawkeye,
i've lived in queens for 24 years, still have not last power. unless you count the blackout of 2003
Con Ed has become one of the biggest liars and thieves in the world, but I think the real problem that people should be asking about is, 'where is the Public Service Commission in all of this?' They are the ones that are supposed to have oversight of Con Ed and they are nowhere to be found. If they were properly doing there job, Con Ed wouldn't have a perpetual free pass to get away with this nonsense. Unfortunately, if you've dealt at all with the NYS Dept. of Public Svce., you've probably learned first hand that they've become nothing but a bunch of swills and apologists for Con Ed. Without PSC oversight, Con Ed is one more monopolist doing anything they feel like. The Public Service Law was created to prevent that sort of behavior, where are these people now?
You people are babies. I don't understand your "Con Edisons," your "power grids," and your "compensation checks." I'm just a caveman. I live fine without electricity.
We got the ConEd bill the other day. I wish somebody could make me understand how come the bill is $3 more than the previous month (actually $6, counting the $3 credit) when we've been without power for more than 8 days. A whole $119 and change to pay for a working family of 2 - basically a few hours of TV, computer and AC a day, plus the fridge... Incredible. I feel like taking ConEd to small claims court.
m,
Take a look at your bill carefully. How much was the cost per KWH last month? How much is it this month?
Also how many KWH did you use last month and how much did you use this month?
It's pretty simple why you paid more even with the blackout:
1) You used more electricity (yes, it might be hard to believe but with the AC, computer, TV going, it's going to drive that bill up).
2) The cost per KWH went up and even if you used less power, each unit of power cost more.
We didn't use more electricity than usual, so if the price went up in a month it must be somewhere over 25% more and that's hard to believe.
But thanks anyway for trying to solve the mistery, BigJ.