Electricity in NYC could take four to seven days to restore (+video)

ConEd could likely have shut down more networks served by the 13th Street substation before the storm arrived, but that would have meant cutting power to tens of thousands of people and critical facilities like hospitals. Even though hospitals have backup power generators, they too can fail. Generators at New York University Langone Medical Center went down Monday night, and patients were evacuated.

"You have to make the decision to shut off power to a substation very, very carefully, especially if it serves critical facilities," Mansoor said. The decision can turn into a lose-lose situation.

Despite the latest damage, Mansoor called the New York City system the most reliable in the world because it's normally well protected from weather and set up with backup equipment. That protects the city from minor disruptions and helps keep major disruptions from cascading through the city.

No system, he said, can be designed to withstand every storm, no matter how severe.

Carol J. Friedland, a Louisiana State University engineer who has studied the impact of flooding on electrical systems, said more measures should be taken to protect equipment in low-lying places. For example, sea walls can be raised, and equipment can sometimes be relocated.

"My personal opinion ... is that there should be more resilience built into these types of infrastructure, because when the power goes out, it disrupts the entire community," she said.

Massoud Amin, a University of Minnesota electrical engineering professor who has studied power outages, said the storm underscores the need to improve the nation's electric grid by stringing more high-voltage wire and using modern sensor technology to spot problems sooner, isolate damage, and speed recovery from outages.

"Our electrical infrastructure system is a marvel of engineering for the last century," Amin said. "The grid operators and the power companies are doing the best they can."

It is too soon to say if anything more could have been done to keep the New York City grid working. Under state regulations, ConEd will be required to file a report on the outage to the New York State Department of Public Service within 60 days of power restoration. That agency's staff will evaluate how problems were handled and if improvements can be made for the future, according to agency spokeswoman Pamela Carter.

IN PICTURES: Superstorm Sandy

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AP writer Jeff Donn reported from Plymouth, Mass. and Dave Carpenter from Chicago. AP writers Scott Mayerowitz and David Koenig contributed to this report.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

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