Failure In Power Grid's Protection System Caused Manhattan Power Outage - Power Company

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th July, 2019) A failure in the protection system of the power grid triggered the blackout that plunged parts of Manhattan, the most densely populated of New York City, into darkness, NYC power providing company, Consolidated Edison, also known as Con Edison, said.

On Sunday evening, Manhattan was hit by a massive blackout that left over 70,000 people without electricity and trapped many of them in subway tunnels and elevators.

"The relay protection system is designed with redundancies to provide high levels of reliability. In this case, Primary and backup relay systems did not isolate a faulted 13,000-volt distribution cable at West 64th Street and West End Avenue. The failure of the protective relay systems ultimately resulted in isolation of the fault at the West 49th Street transmission substation, and the subsequent loss of several electrical networks," Con Edison said in a statement late Monday.

The recent blackout took place on the 42nd anniversary of the infamous July 13-14 blackout in 1977, when power outage took over most of the New York City and led to massive looting, arson and other public disturbances.