Con Edison Promotes Energy Efficiency Initiatives

April 11, 2008 -- Helping our customers use energy more efficiently and making our energy-delivery system cleaner and more efficient are two key ways Con Edison, Inc. is fighting climate change and protecting the environment, says Randolph S. Price, Con Edison’s vice president of Environment, Health & Safety.

Speaking at two sustainability conferences this month, Mr. Price highlighted several Con Edison initiatives to preserve and protect the environment. Helping Con Edison customers become more energy efficient is critical, he said. Energy efficiency, in addition to directly reducing electricity use and associated greenhouse gas emissions, reduces the need to build more power plants, install new transformers, and perform other costly infrastructure upgrades.
 
Con Edison has been expanding its demand-side management (DSM) program, for example, which helps customers reduce demand by installing energy-efficient lighting, air-conditioning, refrigeration, and motors. “As a result of this effort, we have deferred almost $240 million in infrastructure projects for two to four years,” Mr. Price said.

Con Edison is developing and beginning to deploy more intelligent technology, such as smart meters or advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), to help our customers better understand and ultimately modify their energy usage, Mr. Price said. The company is also working with New York State regulators to establish an energy-efficiency portfolio standard to slow the increasing rate of energy use in the state. The goal is to reduce forecast energy usage by 15 percent by 2015.

To improve the efficiency of our energy-delivery system, Con Edison supports research in new technologies, including superconductivity, which will help us increase the efficiency of our electric feeders, Mr. Price said. The company is studying new ways of designing and building substations and distribution installations, and working to improve national efficiency standards for transformers.

Con Edison is also committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions, Mr. Price said. Over the past 11 years, for example, Con Edison has cut by 74 percent emissions of a potent greenhouse gas called sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆) by finding and repairing leaks and replacing older equipment on the company’s electric-distribution system.

Mr. Price spoke at a conference called, “Everyone's Going Green: A Corporate Leader's Challenge in the 21st Century,” at Baruch College on April 1, where he sat on a panel with representatives from Citigroup, General Electric, and Google. On April 9, he spoke at “The Sustainable Manufacturing Summit,” at the Art Institute of Chicago. There he shared a panel with representatives from Exelon, PG&E, Southern Company, Duke Energy, and the Alliance to Save Energy.