New York, Jul 16 (IANS): The massive power outage that hit New York City on the weekend was caused due to a malfunctioning relay protection system, the utility company Con Edison said in a statement.
In a preliminary review of the incident, the power service company said on Monday that a relay protection system at the West 65th Street substation did not operate as designed, reports Xinhua news agency.
The system failure did not isolate a faulted 13,000-volt distribution cable nearby, which "ultimately resulted in isolation of the fault at the West 49th Street transmission substation, and the subsequent loss of several electrical networks", said the statement.
The company said it is continuing with the investigation.
About 72,000 customers in Midtown and Upper West Manhattan lost service during the blackout that started at 6.47 p.m. on July 13.
Power was restored in the next five hours.