Con Ed: This is how we keep power on during heat wave

New York -- When the temperatures and humidity crank up, so do the ACs across the region, dialing up the pressure on Con Ed to keep the system humming during a heat wave.

Con Edison spokesman Allan Drury explains to WABC meteorologist Jeff Smith how the electrical grid works, what happens to it during heat waves and how it can be overtaxed.

The Tri-State area is roasting through an early summer heat wave, and the second one this month at that, with high heat and oppressive humidity.

"We expect scattered outages. During an event this intense, scattered outages are inevitable. But my job is to respond to those outages as professionally and efficiently as possible and get customers back into service. And that's what we've been doing for the past 48 hours or so," Drury said.

Drury explains that when the system gets overtaxed, the power lines literally get hot, causing smoke and problems in manholes that can lead to power outages.

Since the beginning of this latest heat wave on Sunday, Con Ed has seen about 11,000 customers lose service.

"But we've been able to get them back into service quickly. Our job when outages do occur is to keep them geographically confined and short in duration. And we've been able to do that," Drury said.

Watch Jeff's complete video with Drury for an in-depth look at how the system works and what Con Edison has to do to keep the juice flowing, and what you can do to keep your bills down.