Con Edison Invests $2.4 Billion In Summer Reliability
Con Edison has invested a record $2.4 billion in its electric delivery system to keep service reliable ahead of the sizzling summer heat.
The company is maintaining the reliability of its system while leading the region’s clean energy transition. Con Edison helps customers connect solar projects, offers incentives for the electrification of buildings and transportation and is deploying battery storage projects.
Con Edison has achieved several clean energy milestones recently. The company has helped customers connect more than 57,000 solar projects with the combined capacity to produce 517 megawatts. Customers in the energy efficiency programs for small and medium-sized businesses have saved more than 1 million megawatt hours of power.
The company also completed construction of a transmission line in Queens, one of its Reliable Clean City projects. The Queens line and associated substation upgrades enabled the retirement of an inefficient, polluting power plant in Astoria.
The pre-summer upgrades will help keep service reliable across the service area. They include 61 underground transformers, 100 transformers on the overhead electric delivery system, 148 spans of overhead wiring and 198 poles.
“New Yorkers count on Con Edison to keep the power on in every season and that’s why we have made record investments this year in advance of summer heat waves,” said Matthew Ketschke, the president of Con Edison. “We thank our talented workforce for completing these infrastructure improvements, as we build a cleaner, greener, and more resilient grid.”
The investments are among the improvements Con Edison is making to fortify the grid against extreme weather resulting from climate change. Specific projects Con Edison has undertaken for this summer include:
· Manhattan: Installation of new transformers and cable to improve reliability in the Harlem and Yorkville neighborhoods.
· Staten Island: New substation equipment in Grant City and additional switches with remote control and data monitoring in Castleton Corners, South Beach, Willowbrook, Woodrow and Annadale.
· Brooklyn and Queens: Improvements to increase reliability and resiliency and meet growing demand in Red Hook, Sunset Park, Williamsburg and Gravesend in Brooklyn and in Ridgewood, Middle Village, Maspeth and Richmond Hill in Queens.
· The Bronx: New conductors in Mott Haven, Hunts Point, Soundview, and Parkchester.
· Westchester: Smart switches that reduce the number of customers who lose service when a tree or branch hits a power line.
Con Edison projects that the demand for power this summer will peak at 12,990 megawatts. Last summer’s peak occurred at 5 p.m. on Aug. 9 when the company provided 12,424 megawatts. The record is 13,322 megawatts, which occurred at 5 p.m. on July 19, 2013. (One megawatt is equal to 1 million watts.)
