Power Goes Out, Very Briefly, in New York City

A momentary power outage caused lights to flicker across most of New York City late Thursday night, the authorities said, followed by what witnesses described as an explosion and rising smoke at an electrical substation in Brooklyn.

Con Edison, the electricity, gas and steam utility that services 10 million people in New York City and Westchester County, said that a piece of high-voltage electric equipment had short-circuited, causing a large flash at a substation near the Manhattan Bridge on the East River at 11:55 p.m.

Matthew Ketschke, the president of the utility, told reporters early Friday that a protective system was activated to isolate that piece of failed equipment, leading to a brief voltage dip that caused the lights across the city to flicker for about a second.

“Probably most of New York City saw this,” he said, adding that people in the neighboring regions might have experienced the flicker, too, because Con Edison is linked to the broader electrical network.

“The electrical system for all of, really, North America is interconnected,” he continued. “So the power that flows here is also interconnected to systems that serve Long Island, Westchester County and New Jersey.”