Con Edison: Energy NY - Energy NY - Meeting the Energy Challenge

how con edison is addressing new york’s energy and environmental issues

Meeting the Energy Challenge

Con Edison seeks to balance the area's rising demand for power through energy efficiency and energy conservation, which help to reduce the need for some infrastructure investment and help to protect the environment. Con Edison is partnering with stakeholders in both the public and private sectors. We are working with Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC, an effort to reduce carbon emissions by 30% by the year 2030. Con Edison will continue to pursue policies and initiatives that align the company with Governor Paterson's "45 x 15" clean energy strategy and we support the overall efforts to make New York's energy portfolio greener, more diversified, and more secure. We also maintain strategic partnerships with more than 150 environmental organizations, such as the Alley Pond Environmental Center, the Central Park Conservancy, and the National Arbor Day Foundation.

Con Edison has long championed energy conservation and efficiency programs. Lighting accounts for 5 to 10% of total energy use in the average home. In 1971, the company launched the pioneering “Save-A-Watt” program. Beginning in the late 1980s, Con Edison promoted the “Enlightened Energy” program. In 2007, Con Edison joined efforts with the Mayor’s Office and distributed coupons good for $1 off the purchase of fluorescent bulbs to 2.4 million New York City customers. Compact fluorescent light bulbs cut the amount of energy used by about 75%.

Con Edison’s efficiency programs provide customers with the tools to manage energy usage and costs, and help preserve the environment. The central air-conditioning program allows customers to control central air-conditioning manually while at home or via the Internet when they are on the go. Through this technology, customers can better manage their energy usage and create a cost savings by using electricity during off-peak periods when costs are lower. Similarly, Con Edison's voluntary Time-of-Use program is designed to encourage customers to reduce electricity use during peak hours. Under the program, customers are charged for electricity depending on when the electricity is used. The rates are lowest on off-peak periods when usage and the cost of electricity are low. Rates are higher during other periods when usage and the cost of generating electricity are much higher.

Con Edison continues to seek funding for current and proposed initiatives that will substantially increase energy conservation and reduce carbon dioxide emissions through new energy efficiency programs. The company has proposed plans to develop at least 500 megawatts of new permanent demand reduction by 2016, in addition to the several hundred megawatts of demand reduction that will be installed during that period under previous initiatives. Con Edison’s Targeted Demand Side Management Program helps business and residential customers use less electricity by installing energy-efficient lighting, air conditioning, refrigeration, and motors. The program is offered in neighborhoods where peak energy demand would otherwise require us to add new energy delivery facilities including substations.

Con Edison also continues to evaluate ways to make better use of existing assets and possibly reduce the amount of future equipment that may be needed, without compromising the high levels of service reliability that New York needs. For example, an R&D project is looking at the possible application of superconducting cable. Chilling special cables to very low temperatures permits more power to be carried in a smaller space.

Another Con Edison initiative is seeking to define and develop the next-generation electric transmission and delivery system that will meet our customers’ needs 20, 30, or even 50 years from now. A dedicated project team is discussing energy-delivery challenges with industry groups and key equipment manufacturers, and looking at new technologies and best practices from around the world. The “3G System of the Future” project includes international benchmarking of other electric utilities around the world serving dense urban centers, including Tokyo, Paris, London, Sydney, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Chicago. Such technologies have the potential to increase reliability through asset-sharing technologies and alleviate the congestion of underground utilities beneath the streets.

While investments in new technologies are important, Con Edison’s existing energy delivery systems already offer positive benefits, including environmental benefits. For example, the company’s central steam plants enabled many of New York City’s skyscrapers, apartment complexes, and cultural institutions to be built without individual boiler plants – and therefore without chimneys or smokestacks on every building. Were it not for the steam system, annual CO₂ emissions would be increased by the equivalent of emissions from 350,000 passenger cars driven for one year.

Studies performed by Con Edison indicate that operation of the steam system has reduced particulate matter and sulfur dioxide emissions associated with oil or gas combustion as well as reduced oil truck deliveries through New York City streets. The company estimates that approximately 600 truck deliveries are avoided per week due to the operation of the Con Edison steam system. This has a significant positive effect on the overall air quality and quality of life in Manhattan. In addition, by providing nearly 579,000 tons of air conditioning, the steam system reduces the need for peak summer electricity capacity by about 322 megawatts.

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