ConEd Begs Forest Hills Locals To 'Conserve Energy' During Heat Wave

QUEENS, NY — As New Yorkers endure another day of sweltering temperatures, Con Edison, the utility company that operates the city's power grid, is begging neighbors in Forest Hills to bring down their energy usage.

The company urged 84,900 New Yorkers in a large swath of central Queens, including Forest Hills and Rego Park, to "conserve energy" Thursday as crews work on weather-induced repairs and temperatures inch close to triple digits for the second day in a row.

ConEd says energy conservation also helps "maintain reliability" — covert language used to describe preventing further outages as more people use air conditioning.

In Forest Hills and Rego Park, for instance, ConEd is asking neighbors to not use washers, dryers and microwaves and limit "unnecessary use of air conditioning."

The company has also reduced the amount of energy in the area by eight percent — a reduction so slight that customers won't notice, a ConEd spokesperson told CBS2.

About 555 city facilities, 90 of which were reportedly just added by Mayor Eric Adams, are also lowering energy consumption under a citywide program to avoid overloading the electrical grid.

The energy conservation efforts come during the city's second day under a heat advisory, as temperatures hover in the 90s and city officials warn of "dangerous" heat and humidity levels.

New Yorkers living without air conditioning and the city's most vulnerable residents — seniors and people with chronic health and mental health conditions among them — are encouraged to visit citywide cooling centers to stay safe during the heat wave.

The city's heat wave mirrors soaring temperatures across the nation, where hundreds of millions of people are living under heat warnings.

Climate change is likely to blame for record-breaking heat waves, experts told ABC News, and major American cities aren't prepared to deal with the combined climate-induced consequences of blackouts and heat waves, research suggests.