It's not just your imagination; like everything else in this town, freaking electricity costs more than pretty much anywhere else in America. The US Energy Information Administration recently released a report comparing electricity costs across the country, and according to their analysis, New Yorkers on average paid 9.6 percent more for electricity last year, while national electricity rates were mostly flat. Con Ed in particular charges customers, on average, higher rates than anywhere else in the country: 25.85 cents per kilowatt hour, which is more than twice the national average of 11.54 cents. But at least you're paying more to watch Seinfeld reruns in an apartment in THE GREATEST CITY IN THE WORLD! more ›

Harlem residents are relieved this morning now that power has been restored to them after many hours without electricity. Around 10 p.m. last night, a number of high voltage underground feeder lines failed on 140th Street near 7th Avenue, according to WCBS 2, which adds, "Police were on scene with streetlights and the Office of Emergency Management was also there helping residents cope with the heat." Con Ed is working to "install a temporary above-ground line" while the underground feeder lines are repaired. more ›

Yesterday, service on Metro North's New Haven line was suspended, due to wire problems. The result? Thousands of people were stranded, the NY Times reports: "The problems, which began about 4:30 p.m., stranded thousands of people at stations in Connecticut and Westchester County and led to a chaotic scene at Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan, where would-be passengers rushed from track to track in an effort to find seats on any New Haven-bound train." more ›

With demand for electricity soaring along with the heat index, about 1,200 Con Edison customers have lost power in the Bronx, around East 237th Street. A company spokesman tells City Room they hope to restore power to those customers by 2 p.m. As we noted earlier, Con Ed officials are expecting New Yorkers to demand more power than ever before, breaking 2006's peak demand record of 13,141 megawatts. more ›

Starting last night, power went out in parts of Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, and Con Ed is still working to get the juice flowing again so that customers can continue paying through the nose for the supplier's slapdash service. Yesterday afternoon Con Ed kindly requested that customers in parts of Brooklyn and the Upper West Side turn off all non-essential appliances to avoid a brownout, but the brownout "voltage reduction" began anyway within hours. Con Ed reduced voltage to the area by 8 percent, making it difficult to operate A.C. during the summer's first heat advisory. (This handy map shows where the power outages were.) more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] Around 4:30 we received a prerecorded phone message from Con Edison asking us to please turn off and unplug any non-essential appliances. (The voice said we could leave the refrigerator on.) A spokesman for Con Ed tells us that six neighborhoods in Brooklyn are currently subject to a "voltage reduction" because of "a problem with some of the cables supplying power." We're told this is related to today's extreme heat (duh), and the phone calls to Con Ed customers are part of a preemptive effort to avoid a brownout in the borough. more ›

Con Edison won approval from the Public Service Commission, the state agency that oversees utilities, to rise its rates 12% over three years. The NY Times reports, "Con Ed estimated that the increases would raise a typical household bill, now about $84 a month, to more than $94 a month in 2012." This first hike will take effect next month, and the average household's monthly bill will go up by $3.63 (the rates are a little higher in Westchester and a little lower for businesses). more ›

Two politicians got together and wrote a letter to Con Edison, demanding that Staten Island be compensated for its loss of electricity during this weekend's Nor'Easter. More than 48 hours after the lights went out, some borough residents are still without power, reports the Advance. With city temperatures rising, Councilmen James Oddo and Vincent Ignizio say current obstacles include browning meat and quickly wilting lettuce. "The fact is that without proper refrigeration food spoils rather quickly and we are concerned that many of our constituents have powerless refrigerators and freezers filled with rotten and useless food. This leads to considerable financial losses," they wrote. Con Ed hasn't gotten back to them but it's currently handing out dry ice at the Staten Island Mall. more ›

If the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Westchester is sold, New York City residents could see their electricity costs increase. And if the deal goes through, the new owner of the aging facility might be able to avoid paying for the eventual decommission of the plant, forcing taxpayers to cover the hundreds of millions of dollars of decontamination costs. more ›

Six years ago today, parts of the Northeast, Midwest and Canada suddenly suffered a blackout. In New York City, the blackout occurred in the afternoon and after initial worries that it was terrorist-related, people just concentrated on figuring out how to get home—and how to survive without cell service, because most of the circuits were jammed up! And the city came together, with people helping direct traffic, throwing impromptu parties (thanks to restaurants who gave out food since it'd have to be thrown away anyway), being buddies during walks home and offering to let friends and co-workers crash at their place. more ›

Have laptop, will head to neighborhood cafe, right? Well, that might be more difficult at some—the Wall Street Journal looks at the growing trend of some NYC coffee shops telling laptop users they're not wanted: "In some places, customers just get cold looks, but in a growing number of small coffee shops, firm restrictions on laptop use have been imposed and electric outlets have been locked. The laptop backlash may predate the recession, but the recession clearly has accelerated it." more ›

As noted in our newsletter today, 32 years ago tonight, at 8:37 p.m., the blackout of 1977 began. On its 30th anniversary, we did a full recap of the night. The evening has been well-documented elsewhere as well—here are some more images—but the LIFE database actually has plenty photographs from other blackouts in the city's past (1942, 1959, 1965 and 2003). In 2003 the NY Times looked at how the '65 and '77 ones shaped our history. While the former showed people coming together, proving "reassuring and exhilarating," they sum up the latter with a quote a priest named Gabriel Santacruz from St. Barbara's Church in Bushwick. He said the Sunday after the '77 blackout: "We are without God now." more ›

The State Public Service Commission approved a one-year increase for Con Ed electricity rates that will translate to a $6/month increase for NYC customers and $8/month for Westchester customers—plus another surcharge for other assessments, which give Con Ed about $721 million. Half that amount is for higher property taxes. The NY Times reports that the commission asked the utility to take "cost-cutting measures" but Assemblyman Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) blasted the decision, "As long as the Public Service Commission aids and abets Con Edison's game of perpetual rate hikes, the people of New York will continue to suffer from sky-high rates and substandard service. " And Con Ed, which had asked for $819 million, wasn't happy either, “Since most of a customer’s bill is used to pay supply costs and government taxes, it is troubling that the only costs being slashed in today’s P.S.C. decision are the funds used to maintain the system and provide reliable service." Update: Per a commenter, the Post suggests electricity rates will be this summer. We'll investigate. more ›

After outraged and worried Roosevelt Island residents found out their apartment building would use submeters to charge for electricity—resulting in projected bills of up to $1,000—the NY State Public Service Commission ordered to suspend the submetering plan (read the letter here). Many tenants complained that the Roosevelt Landings building had poor heating and insulation—one tenant who got an $800 sample bill used her oven to heat her apartment—but the building claimed few residents responded to their offers to winterize the units. The NY Times reports that the PSC's order "states that the commission was not informed about the complaints regarding poor energy efficiency before granting approval to the plan" and "raised concerns" unpaid electricity bills would be used to evict tenants. Roosevelt Island 360 pointed out, "It is simply insane to expect many of the seniors in Eastwood to simply turn down their heat during the daytime when many cannot leave their apartments." more ›

Residents of the 1,003-unit Roosevelt Landings complex on Roosevelt Island are used to paying for their electricity as part of their rents, but come April they'll start receiving separate bills for the first time. Last week the managers of the complex handed out sample electricity bills based on the readings of submeters installed in apartments, and now residents are shocked to learn that electricity is freaking expensive. One tenant who lives in a three-bedroom unit got a bill for $1,050.43, which was about half of what she pays in rent. Another tenant, Missy Feliciano, tells the Times, "I almost died when I opened the package." Assemblyman Micah Kellner wants officials to re-examine the submetering plan; he contends that "this is a de facto rent increase on this building," which used to be part of the state’s moderate-income Mitchell-Lama housing program. But the COO of the complex, Douglas F. Eisenberg, says, "They haven’t been responsible for their electric bills. Now they are. I think at the end of the day, I feel pretty good that we’re doing the right thing here." more ›

Those high natural gas and oil prices have raised the prices for wholesale electricity that Con Ed buys from power-generating companies, and naturally the company is passing those expenses along to us. The company says that residential customers will pay 22% more for electricity this year than they did last summer – almost a quarter of that spike is due to a Bloomberg-approved rate hike. more ›

With the unusually hot weather (20 degrees above normal) baking the city over the past few days, Con Ed has been trying to keep the power on. The NY Times has taken information from Con Ed showing the change in peak electricity demand between last week and this past Monday and mapped it. more ›

Two companies are vying to be chosen to lay an electricity transmission cable from New Jersey to Manhattan and ultimately, both may wind up doing the job to feed the city's need for juice. The deadline is 2010, when the Charles Poletti Power Project in Astoria, Queens is scheduled to shut down. According to The New York Times, the EPA has identified that plant as the third-largest source of toxic pollutants in the city. Two... more ›