On June 18th, Yury Dvorkin, an assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering, was one of several energy experts interviewed for a news story on ABC TV about how the combination of a hot summer and a large stay at home workforce is setting the stage for potential brownouts or blackouts. “Due to stay-at-home orders, residential energy demand has changed its typical cyclic daily profile,” Dvorkin observed, and, in many cases, demand has increased.

In the story, Dvorkin expressed particular concerns for the city’s “electricity-vulnerable” populations for whom only three to four hours without power would be enough to create serious health issues. He added that, for this vulnerable segment, “if you can’t restore [power] within that time frame, people will incur some long-term health implications.” Electricity is a “critical dependency because some have life support equipment at home which must be recharged,” he added.

In late May, Dvorkin testified during a New York City Council meeting in the city’s cooling needs. You can read his testimony here. You can read the full text of the ABC story here