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Con Edison Rises to Unprecedented Challenge, Restoring Energy Services in Lower
Manhattan
At 8:48 in the morning on September 11th, the World Trade Center came under terrorist attack as a hijacked airliner was flown into Tower 1. Approximately 15 minutes later, a second aircraft crashed into Tower 2. In less than two hours, both towers collapsed, and lower Manhattan was transformed into a disaster zone.
Crisis Response
Within minutes of the first attack, Con Edison implemented its Corporate Emergency Response Procedure. Con Edison field crews reached the disaster zone while the towers were still standing. These crews were the vanguard of a 24-hour-a-day Con Edison presence.
In an emergency, our first task is to help ensure the safety of the public. In addition to securing our own system, Con Edison crews joined with police, fire, and emergency response personnel in helping survivors and facilitating evacuation of the area.
At the same time, Con Edison’s emergency command center was activated in our headquarters building, to provide overall direction and management of the company’s response to the attack, including engineering and logistics support. Hundreds of additional field crews were dispatched to the WTC area. The towers were reduced to a pile of rubble. Fires burned and the entire vicinity was covered by inches of thick white dust, ash, and debris, through which our forces had to dig to reach critical valves and manholes.
As the day progressed, Con Edison crews assessed the extent of damage to the energy-delivery infrastructure in the area. Two electric substations were located below World Trade Center #7, a 47-story tower across the street from the main WTC complex. Falling debris set that building on fire, and by late afternoon it was clear that the building could not be saved. Con Edison shut off power to the building at 4:47 p.m. At 5:20 p.m., the building collapsed and destroyed the substations. Now, most of lower Manhattan was without power. There were 13,000 customers without electricity, 1,400 without gas, 240 without steam.
Service
Restoration
| "The workers of Con Edison restored more than power
to lower Manhattan: they restored confidence to the American
people..." |
With a number of electrical networks rendered inoperative, Con Edison made return of electricity a priority. Electrical service was needed to resume operation of undamaged buildings in lower Manhattan, and was also vitally important to the search and rescue efforts at ground zero. In addition, expediting the reopening of the New York Stock Exchange was important not only to financial markets and the local economy, but to the nation as a whole.
Employees throughout the company worked 12-hour shifts for the duration of the emergency. Many field crews stayed on station for 16 hours, interrupting their work only to sleep or eat quick meals at their work sites. Some did not go home for days.
Con Edison engineers and operations specialists developed a strategy for restoring energy service. Immediate restoration focused on re-energizing undamaged electrical systems, bypassing damaged electrical equipment, and deploying on-site generators. In addition, company representatives reached out to facility managers in lower Manhattan and arranged for buildings with their own stand-by generators to supply power.
Because the loss of two substations required redesign, in effect, of the lower Manhattan electric networks, existing ducts could not be used for the electric cabling needed. In all, 36 miles of electric cable were run above ground or in shallow trenches. Eighty on-site generators were deployed, producing 100 MW in total, enough to power a city the size of Albany. Many of these supported the New York Stock Exchange and its trading partners, enabling the NYSE to reopen successfully on September 17.
Logistical support for field forces was crucial. Items brought to the affected area included respirators, air bottles, thousands of feet of cable, gloves, mobile generators, cots, 30,000 pounds of ice, tools, fuel, raingear, and much more. Con Edison’s Transportation department set up round-the-clock fueling operations for all of the mobile generators in the area.
Throughout, Con Edison representatives worked closely with the Office of Emergency Management, New York City officials, the city’s uniformed services, and the media. Customers were kept up to date by means of the Customer Service call system, and also by frequent updates to the media. Con Edison assigned a customer outreach team to help staff New York City’s business assistance center at 80 Pine Street. More than 80 Energy Services representatives worked with building operators and facility managers on technical and restoration issues.
With more than 1,900 workers active in the field and hundreds more supporting them around the clock, substantial progress toward service restoration was made hourly. Cutting, splicing, cable work, and shunting continued for days throughout the affected area of lower Manhattan.
The gas system remained pressurized, except for several blocks around the WTC complex, where engineers worked alongside field crews, cutting and capping gas mains to isolate damaged sections. Leak-survey crews continually patrolled surrounding neighborhoods to ensure that no problems had been missed.
Pressure in the steam system dropped rapidly following the attack, as a result of breaks in steam pipes running through the World Trade Center complex. In order to isolate the damage, a substantial part of the steam system in lower Manhattan was shut off. Steam up to the customer service valve was quickly restored to Beekman Hospital, Gouverneur Hospital, 1 Chase Plaza, the Stock Exchange, and other customers who were ready to accept steam service.
The success of lower Manhattan restoration efforts reflected unprecedented teamwork by all the forces involved. At the same time, Con Edison’s crews were sustained and inspired by the outpouring of support from the hundreds of volunteers who distributed essentials ranging from cold water to dry socks, from the owners of local restaurants (some of the finest in New York) who set up buffets for hungry workers, and from the groups of people who gathered both day and night along the highway leading to ground zero to cheer them as they came and went.
In a letter from The Business Council of New York State, President and CEO Daniel B. Walsh wrote: “The workers of Con Edison restored more than power to lower Manhattan: they restored confidence to the American people… Their sweat, toil, and courage inspire us all. We know there is much work ahead for you, for us, and for all Americans, but you and your employees have given us a standard we can strive to match.”
The Public Service Commission, under the leadership of Chairman Maureen Helmer, acknowledged Con Edison’s accomplishment in a resolution adopted on October 24th. The document concludes: “Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Commission, with a profound sense of gratitude, records its high esteem for these men, women, and organizations for their extraordinary service to the people and the State of New York in a time of unparalleled crisis…”
Repair and Rebuilding
Service restoration in lower Manhattan was Con Edison’s initial objective, but completing permanent repairs, which involves rebuilding lower Manhattan’s energy delivery infrastructure, will take much longer. Con Edison’s very high levels of service reliability reflect the robust electric, gas, and steam infrastructures in the affected area, much of which will remain in service. However, the destruction at the World Trade Center complex itself and on the periphery will necessitate considerable rebuilding.
The capacity of the two destroyed substations will have to be replaced. Con Edison engineers and operators have developed plans to replace one of these by expanding capacity at an existing substation by the summer of 2002, and the second, by constructing a new substation by the summer of 2003. Substantial reconfiguration and reconstruction of the lower Manhattan electric transmission and delivery infrastructure will be required. In the coming months, Con Edison forces will install more than 85 miles of new underground conduit and fresh cable, and build more than 50 new manholes.
A great deal of ancillary work will be necessary to support this restoration program. Feeders and transformers will have to be relabeled, remote monitoring systems will have to be reprogrammed, relay settings and control systems will have to be modified, and all new construction will have to be thoroughly documented to reflect changes in the system.
Permanent repairs will also be required for parts of the gas and steam systems in lower Manhattan. Some gas mains will be removed and replaced, along with associated regulation and control equipment. Four portions of the steam system that sustained damage will also have to be rebuilt.
Con Edison estimates the cost of restoring lower Manhattan’s energy systems at approximately $400 million. The company is seeking federal reimbursement for its response and recovery costs.
Although the acute crisis-response phase is past, Con Edison’s rebuilding program remains intensely active. Thousands of employees, from field crews to senior executives, are focused on construction of the permanent new energy delivery infrastructures for the affected area that will restore and further enhance the reliability and security of our service and will provide for the growth that we are confident we will see in the future.
Currently, 90 percent of the buildings in lower Manhattan are functioning and fully operational. Customers near ground zero and adjacent neighborhoods include major banks, financial institutions, the Federal Reserve Bank, and many others. According to a special report on the impact of the World Trade Center attack by Insignia/ESG, about 30 percent of World Trade Center tenants who were displaced by the attack are relocating outside the city. In fact, about 66 percent of the space leased by displaced companies is in Manhattan.
Although the architectural solution has not been determined, the World Trade Center site will be redeveloped. Before the September 11th attack, the World Trade Center complex provided 12.9 million square feet of commercial and office space. That represented four percent of Manhattan’s office real estate, and approximately 13 percent of the downtown office market. The restoration is likely to provide as much space.
Con Edison will have lower Manhattan’s energy infrastructure rebuilt to accommodate future growth in our customer base and the increased demand for energy transmission and delivery service it represents. Despite the systems damage and the expenditures needed for reconstruction, Con Edison is, and will continue to be, very strong financially.
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