Con Edison Sees Full Manhattan Power Restored Tomorrow

Consolidated Edison Inc. (ED) will restore power to 6,500 customers on the southern tip of Manhattan today, with the rest of the island expected to get electricity back tomorrow.

Con Edison will bring two underground power networks online today that supply homes and businesses south of the Brooklyn Bridge, Mike Clendenin, a spokesman for the New York-based utility, said in a phone interview. Clendenin corrected a statement from Robert McGee, another company spokesman, who told Bloomberg Radio this morning that power for all of Manhattan may be restored today.

Electricity is currently out for 220,000 customers in lower Manhattan, below 39th Street on the east side and below 31st Street on the west side, Clendenin said. About 3.7 million customers are still without power in the region after Hurricane Sandy made landfall in New Jersey on Oct. 29, according to a Bloomberg tally. Some utilities are saying full restoration may take as long as two weeks.

Blackouts in Manhattan may linger for about 130 buildings mostly along the East River that suffered major flooding because of damage to customer equipment, John Miksad, Con Edison’s senior vice president for electric operations, said on a conference call yesterday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Benjamin Haas in New York at bhaas7@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Susan Warren at susanwarren@bloomberg.net