NEW YORK, Sept. 17 -- Turning the lights back on at 4 New York Plaza became reality today. A team of nine from Con Edison was augmented by five team members of the US Army Corps of Engineer's 249th Engineer Battalion (Prime Power) during the installation of two 1500 KW generators provided by General Electric.

This building is occupied by several financial institutions. Each generator unit is contained in a 40-foot semi trailer. Two additional backup units are also at this site on Water Street in the city's financial district and will be installed if necessary. During this effort, the battalion is working under the direction of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The building had been without power since Tuesday's World Trade Center terrorist attack. Lt. Col. Kevin Wilson, battalion commander, pointed out that "this is a temporary measure until ConEd can get reliable commercial power established. This is typical of what our unit has done at all disaster sites." Most recently, elements of this unit from Fort Belvoir, Va., and Fort Lewis, Wash., also assisted at flood disasters in Houston, Texas and West Virginia.

The 249th Engineer Battalion specializes in power generation and distribution is support of the Army in wars, conflicts and disaster relief operations. The battalion is headquartered at Fort Belvoir, Va., but has units forward deployed throughout the United States as well as Germany and Korea.