Map from the NY Times
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.
An important thing to note is that the jump looks lowest in many midtown and lower Manhattan areas because the air conditioning was already on, whereas other people in other neighborhoods were probably just returning home from work and turning on their AC units then.
Con Ed revealed yesterday's electric use was a new June record, "12,987 megawatts at 5 p.m., surpassing the record of 12,684 megawatts set at 5 p.m. Monday." Yesterday's electricity use was also the fourth-highest all-time peak electric use on record (overall electricity consumption has increased 20% over the past 10 years). Con Ed has suggestions on how NYers can conserve energy, like "Using energy-intensive appliances like dishwashers, washing machines and dryers late at night, or early in the morning" (more here).
