For some reason the Blackout of 1999 seems to have slipped everyone's mind. More extensive than the one that happened yesterday
JULY 8, 1999
AFTERMATH OF A HEAT WAVE: THE OVERVIEW; 18-Hour Blackout Ends as Heat Fades
After a blackout that lasted nearly 19 hours, power was restored to most of northern Manhattan yesterday, but unimpressed city officials angrily threatened legal action against Con Edison, saying the utility had failed to build a power system able to withstand intense heat waves.
The blackout occurred when Con Edison workers were preparing to turn back on two power cables that had failed in upper Manhattan on Tuesday night. One of the cables failed again, sparking a fire. Con Ed said that it quickly shut down all power to the entire area north of 155th Street to prevent further damage.
New power failures flared in some parts of New York City and also in downtown Newark, where blackouts knocked out power to the subway system, Pennsylvania Station and thousands of homes and businesses.
On the Lower East Side of Manhattan, a fire in an electrical substation knocked out subway service on the F line for five hours, and it caused a brownout across a large section of the East Village.
https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/08/nyregion/aftermath-of-a-heat-wave-the-overview-18-hour-blackout-ends-as-heat-fades.html