National Grid Working on Substation

DELMAR - Extremely high temperatures June 23-25, drove a sharp spike in electricity demand with power outages occurring across town. A major outage occurred again on Wednesday night in Elsmere, with about 1,000 customers affected according to National Grid.

Town Supervisor David VanLuven met with National Grid on Thursday, June 26, and the power company explained that the 3-nights of outages in Elsmere were the result of a transformer station near the intersection of Elsmere and Kenwood avenues failing repeatedly.

The long-term solution to this issue is for National Grid to rebuild the Elsmere Sub-Station. “I have committed the Town of Bethlehem to do everything we can to expedite this important upgrade,” VanLuven said.

While the rebuild is underway, National Grid is assessing ways to route electricity through the system differently to ease the load at the Elsmere Ave / Kenwood Ave transformer station.

VanLuven added he would continue to work with National Grid to advance needed improvements to their infrastructure. “Thanks to everyone for their patience, to the National Grid line workers who got the system back up and running each night, and to the firefighters, emergency medical staff, and Town workers who helped everyone through these three difficult nights,” said VanLuven.