Rockville Centre experience minor power outages from storm, but none from heat wave

All went well at Rockville Centre’s Electric Department during last week’s heat wave. The peak power supplied by the Rockville Centre Electric Department during last week’s heat wave fell short of last July’s record output of 58 megawatts.

According to village spokesman Jeff Kluewer, the average peak is the number used to evaluate the power plant’s sustained output, rather than the “instantaneous” peak. Last week’s peak was on June 21 at 4 p.m., at 53.5 megawatts. The temperature at the time was 96 degrees, and the plant was importing 45 megawatts while producing approximately another 10 with its own generators.

But Monday morning’s intense thunderstorm produced different results — two outages. Cable failure inside a manhole at Grand and North Park, caused power to go out between 8:56 and 11:38 a.m., affecting 37 customers, including St. Agnes Cathedral School, and apartment buildings on Clinton, Grand, Morris and North Park avenues, as well as traffic lights on Lincoln at South Park, South Village and South Centre avenues.

Another outage, from 9 to 11 a.m., occurred when lightning struck a transformer on a pole, causing power to go out at one residence as well as the traffic light at the intersection of DeMott, Brower and Long Beach Road.