NYSEG: 90 Percent of Power Restored by Midnight Wednesday

The majority of NYSEG customers in Bedford and Katonah who are still without power four days after an October snowstorm should be restored by midnight Wednesday with the final few restored by Friday night, said NYSEG spokesman, Jim Salmon.

Of 32,470 NYSEG customers in Westchester, just over 12,000 are still without power.

Bedford and its three hamlets are faring a bit better than nearby towns—about 30 percent of local NYSEG customers are still powerless, compared to South Salem and Pound Ridge, where 80 percent and 60 percent of customers do not have power.

Many locals have been specifically with the online outage map which indicates which streets have electricity and estimates when those without power will be restored. Residents have said restoration times have been inaccurate and have in some cases falsely indicated power was restored.

There are a number of factors that could lead to errors on the outage map, including partly damaged circuits or problems with service lines leading from circuits to individual homes, Salmon said.

"A crew might finish work on a circuit and all signs point to it being on—then they let us know and we manually enter the restoration on the online map. But even if the circuit looks 'hot,' we may not know about an individual problem," he said. "The best thing to do is to call in the outage to ensure we have the information."

It's a common misconception that the power company has a big grid that indicates where all the outages are, he added. "Until we are on a smart grid—and that's another story—we don't know until the outages are called in."

In some cases the outage map may indicate the power is out but it's been restored—this is because radio communications may not be effective in some areas, and restorations are not reported to NYSEG headquarters until the end of the day when crews return with their paperwork.

Bedford Supervisor Lee Roberts said she found NYSEG responsive in their communications but felt they had insufficient crews to address the widespread outages. "This time was worse than Irene—there were many more transmision lines impaired," she said, adding that the cold temperatures were making it difficult for locals. 

If you haven't called in your power outage yet, call (800)-572-1131. To retrieve power restorations specific to your home, go directly into the “Report and electricity outage” button at this link:http://ebiz1.nyseg.com/cusweb/outagenotification.aspx, where you can directly enter your account number or phone number.