Raised in Brooklyn, John Carucci is the manager of construction at Con Edison’s newest energy substation in Canarsie. He says it’s being built to prevent what many New Yorkers like him have experienced.
“The really big outage that happened in Manhattan a couple of years ago. The outage even further back, where most of the eastern seaboard was out. So those are my personal experiences,” Carucci said. “But again, this station is here to help protect against those things in the future. So hopefully we don’t have any massive borough wide outage.”
In a 1.3 billion dollar investment, Con Edison is building the Gateway Substation on East 91st Street, which will process high voltage electricity to power around 52,000 customers in the areas of Central and East Brooklyn.
Crews are underway building the station as well as 28 miles of underground cable.
Con Ed says the need for power throughout the borough will increase 16% in the next ten years.
“So this is a historically underserved portion of the neighborhood,” said Carucci. “So as more people move in, as businesses continue to move in and grow, and as the push comes to electrify New York, this station is going to really help supply that demand and that load.”
Officials say infrastructure like this is needed as the energy needs of New Yorkers change, in part because summers are getting hotter, and winters are getting colder, for longer.
This past June there were record breaking heat waves, resulting in tens of thousands of outages systemwide.
Allyson Martinez, the executive director of Brooklyn Level Up, a community development corporation, says East Brooklyn faces a great deal of inequity when it comes to climate resiliency.
“it is a homeowner community, actually one of the last bastions of black homeownership in New York City,” Martinez said. “And people are having to start to reckon with the realities of extreme heat, lack of tree canopy, and the impact that has on rising heat and cost.”
The substation is expected to be completed in 2028, but Con Ed says it’s a long-term investment to make energy more reliable, resilient and delivered at the lowest possible cost.
“The hope that it’ll be an immediate relief. That’s definitely is. And I also hope that it’s an opportunity for community to see that their needs can be addressed,” Martinez said.
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