New York, NY —

Con Edison says it is experiencing some underground electrical problems on Manhattan's East side and it is urging its customers there to stop using non-essential electricity. The effected area is between 40th Street and 14th Street, from Fifth Avenue to the East River.

Con Ed spokesman Chris Olert says the request is "pre-emptive" to "take the pressure off the system." He says the area is not experiencing any outages.

The company also is asking its largest customers, including several hospitals in that area, to reduce their electrical use. Olert says many of those customers already were operating on generators.

One of those hospitals, Beth Israel, had been operating on an emergency generator since Tuesday to help cut down on the electrical grid load. Hospital spokesman Jim Mandler says Beth Israel has ample power with its emergency generator.

About 5600 Con Ed customers - roughly 22,400 people - are without power today in and around New York City.

On Long Island, the Long island Power Authority says 3232 people were without power as of 11 this morning.

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