Press Release

NEW YORK, Aug. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Con Edison today issued its initial report on the outages affecting northwest Queens two weeks ago and said more analysis into the causes of the equipment failures will be done in the weeks ahead.

The report provides a chronology of the failures in power cables and other equipment, which began during a heat wave on Monday, July 17th and progressed throughout the week.

The company said a more thorough analysis of the equipment will be needed to determine the root cause of the problems.

Copies of the report are available on the home page of Con Edison's website at www.coned.com

Hundreds of company crews remain in the northwest Queens area, dedicated to stabilizing the local grid that was damaged during the event.

Meanwhile, the company strongly urged its customers to conserve energy during the current heat wave, as usage levels reach all-time highs.

SOURCE Con Edison -0- 08/02/2006 /CONTACT: Michael Clendenin, for Con Edison, +1-212-460-4111/ /Web site: http://www.coned.com / (ED)