NY PSC To Examine Whether Con Edison Upgraded

NEW  YORK (Dow Jones)--The New York Public Service Commission said it will examine  whether Consolidated Edison Inc. (ED) has been upholding a commitment to upgrade its distribution equipment to ward off blackouts in the New York City area.

The regulator's comments came in response to a malfunctioning cable that caused 10,000 customers in Brooklyn to lose power for up to five hours Wednesday  night.

"It is important to note that this outage wasn't due to inadequate supplies of electricity, but equipment failures," Robert Simpson, executive  deputy of the chairman of the PSC, said in a statement.

If the PSC finds Con Edison hasn't invested in its distribution system,  the regulators said they might consider imposing sanctions on the utility.

Con Edison said it's made substantial investment in its distribution system, including almost one half billion dollars this year. The utility said it has also hired an additional 115 more maintenance workers.

"We aren't happy if even one of our 3.1 million customers loses power,"  utility spokesman Michael Clendenin said.

Con Edison resolved to upgrade its equipment after distribution problems in July 1999 left customers in northern Manhattan without power for about 19 hours overnight.