U.S. representatives Gregory Meeks and Grace Meng wrote a letter to Con Edison CEP Timothy Cawley urging the company to provide bill credits to Queens residents whose power was shut off on July 3 during an intense heatwave.
QNS file photos
After an intense heatwave that left three New York City residents dead from heat-related illnesses earlier this month, U.S. representatives Gregory Meeks and Grace Meng sent a letter to Con Edison asking the energy company to compensate Queens residents who lost power during dangerous conditions.
The city saw temperatures rise to 100 degrees, taking a major toll on the power grid. As a result, Con Edison shut off power to nearly 10,000 Queens customers in portions of Howard Beach, Ozone Park, Richmond Hill and South Ozone Park on July 3.
Con Edison also reduced voltage by 8% for about 400,000 more customers in other areas of the city, including Brooklyn, the Bronx, Staten Island and other parts of Queens.
In a letter to Con Edison CEO Timothy Cawley, Meeks and Meng urged the company to provide bill credits to residents impacted by long outages and power shutoffs.
“Our impacted constituents deserve to be reimbursed for the hardships they endured from the outages and shutoffs that occurred through no fault of their own,” the letter wrote. “We understand the extreme heat and heavy demand for power caused equipment issues. But those who suffered with no power during the heatwave have already been struggling with high electricity rates and other skyrocketing costs as families work to make ends meet. We hope Con Edison will do the right thing and quickly provide needed bill credits to people in our districts.”
In an email to QNS, a Con Edison spokesperson directed customers to its website to submit claims for issues such as loss of perishable food or prescription medications.
“Each claim will be reviewed based on the specific circumstances of the outage, including its duration and cause, and eligibility for reimbursement will be determined in accordance with our regulations,” the spokesperson continued. “Outages caused by factors outside the company’s control, such as storms, may not be eligible for reimbursement. Claims must be submitted within 30 days of the outage.”