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Concerns About NYC Power Grid Stability

A 10-day power outage in Queens last year has raised questions about the stability and durability of the power grid in New York City.

Last summer's 10-day power outage in Queens has raised questions about the stability and durability of the power grid in New York City. Growing demand and an aging power infrastructure are seen by many as a recipe for problems this summer. That includes the possibility of periodic brownouts and blackouts, according to Wall Street & Technology, which reports that data center operators and Wall Street firms are watching their energy usage and making contingency plans. An excerpt:

"We are very concerned," adds Tesh Durvasula, COO and EVP of NYC-Connect, a colocation facility in the Chelsea section of Manhattan that hosts servers for a dozen Wall Street firms. "It's getting worse every year," he says. "Now the grids are in such high use that we're seeing surges in the grid on a weekly basis."

Those concerns are reinforced by the New York Independent System Operator's 2007 Reliability Needs Assessment report, which was released in March and said that the margin between power supply and demand in New York City is shrinking. Read the full story for the details.