Air conditioning is a hot commodity this week in the Capital Region and beyond as New York experiences the hottest stretch of weather of the year so far.

But cool air is a luxury many people have been without, particularly in Rensselaer County.

“On Sunday night, we had a fire at substation that caused a fairly large outage overnight,” National Grid spokesman Patrick Stella said.

Tens of thousands of people in East Greenbush and surrounding communities were left in the dark and without a cool escape.

What You Need To Know

  • National Grid customers in Rensselaer County have lost power three consecutive days this week

  • A fire at a substation in East Greenbush is responsible for outages on Monday and Tuesday

  • A spokesman for the utility said heat is not a factor, but an unfortunate coincidence

“On Tuesday, those same customers were affected again by another equipment problem that we had in that substation,” Stella said.

On Wednesday, about 4,000 of those customers experienced another outage due to an issue away from the substation.

Stella said the multifaceted issue is not related to the heat, but instead, an unfortunate coincidence.

“We’ll be making some other repairs,” he said. “We put in some contingency plans up there that will keep the power on until we can make the final repairs and replace all the equipment that was burned.”

With a few more warm days in the forecast, Stella encouraged people to be mindful as they try to stay cool.

“We certainly want our customers to be comfortable, but if you can find places where there is a light on that’s not needed, or maybe you can turn you air conditioner up just one degree and still be comfortable,” Stella said. “Just be cognizant of that.”

Stella said the grid is in good shape and capable of handling the demand brought on by the heat.

“We have the crews available to fix any problems that we see,” he said. “We’re just monitoring it pretty closely at this time.”