Sen. Gounardes seeks accountability and calls for hearings on stability of power grid following blackouts

ALBANY — A Brooklyn senator is tired of his constituents being kept in the dark when it comes to crippling blackouts and the overall state of the city’s power grid.

Sen. Andrew Gounardes, a Democrat representing a swath of south Brooklyn stretching from Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights to Manhattan Beach and Marine Park, is calling for public hearings in the wake of widespread power outages that left thousands without electricity during the hottest days of the year.

Gounardes wants to help illuminate what happened when Con Edison preemptively severed power to 33,000 households over the weekend and ensure that the city is prepared for similarly sweltering days in the future.

“While we want to do an investigation into what happened this past weekend with prematurely cutting people’s power off and not restoring it for a couple of days, we also want to take a step further and say it’s not just about pointing blame," he told the Daily News. "What do we need to be doing so that when we have consecutive 100-degree days in the future, what are we doing to prepare for that.”

Gounardes said leaders from Con Edison, National Grid and the Public Service Commission need be straight with city residents about the state of power grid and what they are doing to ensure aging infrastructure is up to the task of providing power.

“Every time there’s an issue with the power, Con Ed apologizes, but never really explains and never really helps make things better,” he added.

The hearings would examine National Grid’s decision to place a moratorium on new natural gas connections in the city and on Long Island unless a new gas pipeline gets approved by state regulators. Oklahoma-based Williams Companies resubmitted a water quality certification permit application for a 24-mile pipeline that would run across New York Harbor after the state Department of Environmental Conservation denied its earlier attempt in May.

On Sunday, Gov. Cuomo directed the Public Service Commission, the state’s regulatory arm providing oversight of utility companies, to investigate the service issues in Brooklyn.

The order expanded upon the commission’s ongoing investigation of a blackout a week early that plunged parts of midtown Manhattan into darkness.

“We have been through this situation with Con Ed time and again, and they should have been better prepared — period,” Cuomo said. “This was not a natural disaster; there is no excuse for what has happened in Brooklyn.”

Gounardes said smaller outages are a common occurrence in neighborhoods like Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights and he wants to see utility companies like Con Ed – which is currently calling for a rate hike – held accountable.

“They’re asking for rate increases and yet they can’t seem to provide basic answers to questions,” he said. “They need to be much more aggressive in identifying these problems and being more forthcoming and honest with the customers that they serve and if they can’t do that they shouldn’t be in this business.”

Cuomo suggested Monday during an interview on WAMC Con Edison could lose its license if they don’t step up and .

“They can lose their franchise. There is a process. They are regulated by the Public Service Commission,” he said. “We have changed utilities in the past.”

Con Edison said the company is doing its best to adapt to “more frequent and severe weather events – such as the record-breaking heatwave we just experienced” and is committed to improving the energy grid, through rate hikes.

“We never want to see customers out of service and when outages occur we work around the clock until service is restored," the company said. “We look forward to meeting with the affected communities and their elected leaders to share more detail and provide a greater understanding of how the electric grid works, how we strive to serve customers reliably, and the steps we sometimes must take to make sure power outages are as short as possible.”