Following her wedding inside Madison Square Garden in Midtown Manhattan to Kansas City Chief Travis Kelce on Friday, July 3, singer Taylor Swift has been getting heat (no pun intended) online because some New Yorkers feel they lost power or were left without power in or around her wedding day.

 

While the lavish gathering appears to have gone ahead for the bride and groom without any glitches, and even the nearby Empire State Building lit up in “something blue” as a tribute to the global superstar, as reported, Con Ed, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and The New York Independent Service Operator (ISO) had been asking New Yorkers to conserve energy in recent days amid both needed repairs in the Northwest Bronx, and a decline in operating reserves around the city.

 

Norwood News spoke to Con Ed on Sunday, July 5, and asked if the Swift-Kelce wedding had had any impact on power outages for New Yorkers across the City and a spokesperson confirmed that it “absolutely did not.”

The spokesperson explained that there are 65 independent underground networks linked to the grid that serves New York City and its five boroughs, and each network has its own high voltage “feeders” and “transformers” below ground. The spokesperson explained that across a neighborhood like Norwood and Bedford Park, for example, there are a few networks and if one feeder goes down, there is no customer impact.

 

According to the spokesperson, feeders are turned off sometimes for regular scheduled work but during a heatwave, no feeders are turned off for any scheduled work and the only work being carried out is emergency work. The spokesperson added that 87 percent of the City’s grid network is underground.

The spokesperson went on to explain that Times Square and other areas of the City each have their own networks and Con Ed does not have the ability to divert power from one network in one part of the City to another network in another part of the City. The spokesperson said the grid is not set up that way, adding that when neighbors conserve energy, they are just helping their immediate neighbors and when everyone participates in conservation, it can make a big difference across the city.

 

According to the spokesperson, when the networks get stressed, Con Ed asks everyone to conserve energy, especially from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., and in doing so, as above, they help their immediate neighbors in the same network. Con Ed said conserving energy helps your electric bill, helps the environment, and takes pressure of the grid. They said the use of heavy curtains, for example, over windows can block a substantial amount of heat from entering through windows.

 

The latest outage maps are attached. The spokesperson went on to say that tips on how to conserve energy and lower bills can be found on the Con Ed website, here.

 

The spokesperson said multiple trees are down in Westchester County as of Sunday and crews are working to remove them safely as soon as possible, along with other affected areas.

Meanwhile, the blue lighting by the Empire State Building on Friday was a subtle nod to Swift’s blue-themed, “1989” album, which featured the hit single “Welcome to New York.” It was later used by NYC & Company, the city’s official marketing and tourism organization, as part of a New York City tourism promotional video.

 

Ahead of their nuptials, Swift and Kelce donated $26 million to 20 charities across the country, including food banks and Dolly Parton’s foundation. The number 13 is Swift’s lucky number so it appears to have been a $13 million donation each from the bride and groom.

 

Con Ed’s clarification of the power outage situation may not stop the online hate directed at the singer but “haters gonna hate hate hate hate hate.” Presumably, she’s “just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake it off, shake it off.”

For more on this topic, click here, here, and here and for tips on how to beat the heat, click here.