Highlights
- Plan Includes Support to Increase Electrification of Buildings & Transportation, Help Drive Economic Growth
- Funding to Expand Outreach for Enrollment in Energy Affordability Program
- Investments to Fortify Grid for Extreme Weather
Con Edison is seeking state regulatory approval for infrastructure investments that would help the company maintain its nation-leading reliable electric service and continue fortifying its energy systems, as extreme weather events become more frequent and severe.
The investment plan, subject to approval by the New York State Public Service Commission, supports clean energy investments needed to build and maintain the grid of the future, improvements to customer affordability programs, and IT infrastructure and tools that will better serve customers' needs.
To meet the forecasted growth in customer demand from building and transportation electrification and from new development throughout the service territory, Con Edison is building new electric infrastructure. Con Edison customers are continuing to choose heat pumps and electric vehicles consistent with New York State's climate laws and the proposed investments will help ensure the grid is ready to meet this demand.
"Con Edison is proud to serve more than 9 million people in New York City and Westchester County, supporting the vital economic, health, and transportation networks that keep our region thriving," said Matthew Ketschke, president of Con Edison. "Our top priority is to deliver safe, reliable, and affordable energy to our customers. Our proposed investment plan will support critical work and investments in reliability, resiliency and clean energy infrastructure to meet the high expectations of our customers, who depend on us to deliver the most reliable electric service in the nation."
The proposed electric and gas rate plans will support economic growth and development in New York City and Westchester County by investing more than $21 billion over three years to build new infrastructure, like transmission, substation and distribution facilities to better serve customers, including those in disadvantaged communities, and help ensure compliance with New York State's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.
Bill Impact and Advocating for Customers on Affordability and Taxes
The filing requests new rates for one year starting on January 1, 2026. Con Edison is open to a multi-year settlement, which would provide more cost certainty for its customers. Con Edison estimates that its investments would require approximately $1.6 billion more in electric revenue and about $440 million more in gas revenue, resulting in an average electric bill increase of 11.4 percent and an average gas bill increase of 13.3 percent.
Con Edison recognizes the economic challenges faced by many customers and is seeking funding to expand its outreach for enrolling eligible customers in the Energy Affordability Program (EAP). In 2024, Con Edison provided more than $300 million in bill discounts to those enrolled in the EAP.
Additionally, the plan estimates that increasing property taxes on energy infrastructure paid by customers account for nearly 27 percent of the proposed electric revenue increase and about 14.5 percent of the proposed gas revenue increase. Con Edison estimates it will collect more than $3.2 billion in property taxes from its customers in 2026 and welcomes the opportunity to work with policy makers on solutions that could direct that tax revenue back to low-income customers to provide bill relief or support clean energy programs.
Meeting Demand for Clean Energy, Maintaining Reliability and Resilience
Con Edison supports its customers' energy choices while building a reliable and resilient grid capable of delivering 100 percent clean energy. Specific components of the investment include:
- A substation complex in eastern Queens to support the growing demand for power from the redevelopment of JFK Airport, MTA bus depots and customer electrification in the Jamaica network that will also help to lower emissions contributing to cleaner air quality for the community.
- A clean energy hub in Brooklyn that will unlock renewable energy while supporting reliability in local neighborhoods.
- A Distributed System Technology Platform to integrate renewable energy sources and maintain grid stability during extreme weather. Supporting demand response programs helps Con Edison manage energy consumption to provide reliable service for all customers.
- An electrification pilot for private, affordable multi-unit buildings to help address the affordability impact of heating electrification through bill credits to tenants not covered by rent control and residents in low-income co-ops. This pilot will provide insight and understanding into how to best help mitigate the cost of the clean energy transition for these tenants.
- Expansion of service installation programs for new businesses, including electric vehicle infrastructure and building heating electrification, to accommodate the expected increase in activity due to the transition to electric vehicles and clean heat and new development.
- Expansion of the electric delivery system in areas where medium- and heavy-duty fleets are located to facilitate the conversion to electricity for transportation, and to maintain system reliability and resilience while enhancing public and employee safety investments.
Cost Efficiencies & Productivity
Con Edison implements ongoing efforts to drive cost efficiencies by leveraging business processes, workforce and its technology:
- Con Edison will continue its rigorous competitive bid processes for major contracts.
- To drive efficiency of its operation and reduce energy waste, Con Edison will continue to deploy algorithms and sensors on underground equipment to help detect problems early and manage issues before they become costly.
- Con Edison will also continue to implement energy efficiency programs to help low- and moderate-income customers reduce their energy consumption and costs.
- Con Edison will continue investments in its digital channels, including websites, virtual assistant, and mobile applications to support customers' ability to receive service promptly and effectively. Investments now in these robust channels will allow Con Edison to serve customers more efficiently by avoiding the need for millions of calls annually to its call center and the associated cost.
Reducing Methane Emissions from the Gas System
Con Edison's gas plan includes investments to maintain the safety and reliability of its system. The company seeks to continue replacing cast-iron and unprotected steel main with durable plastic piping. Along with improving safety and reliability, the main replacement will reduce the emission of methane, a greenhouse gas that is about 30 times as potent as carbon dioxide in trapping heat around the earth.
Fortifying Infrastructure to Prevent Outages
Con Edison's research with Columbia University and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority found that extreme weather events will continue to increase in frequency and severity. The plan includes investments that will enhance reliability and resiliency to address more frequent and severe storms, hotter temperatures, and longer heatwaves.
These investments build on the company's success in hardening its energy systems against severe heat, wind, flooding, snowstorms and rainstorms since Superstorm Sandy. The resiliency measures already implemented have prevented more than 1.2 million customer outages, and Con Edison seeks additional funding to help ensure it can keep pace with changing climate impacts.
Con Edison proposes:
- Replacing overhead wire circuits with more resilient aerial cable and installing switches to diversify supply sources and maintain adequate power.
- Hardening overhead wire circuits, particularly those serving customers that provide critical services. These include hospitals, warming and cooling shelters, pumping stations and first responder and emergency operations centers.
- Placing some overhead circuits underground to protect them from tree damage and avoid outages during overhead storms.
- Replacing sections of underground cable that the company's analysis indicates are vulnerable to increasing temperatures caused by climate change.
Expanding Customer Outreach and Support
Con Edison is proposing continued investments in customer service enhancements to better serve customers, and in the IT systems necessary to make it easier to do business with Con Edison while keeping critical information and systems safe from increasing cyber threats. This includes:
- Increasing customer service staff to shorten wait times and handle increased call volume.
- Expanding outreach and tools that provide language translation services to meet the needs of the region's diverse population.
- New information technology infrastructure to expand bill payment options and cyber protections.
- Protections for its customers through enhancements in cyber and physical security capabilities to meet evolving regulatory standards and increased threats to IT systems.
About the Investment Plan Filing Process
The filing starts an 11-month Commission process that will include public hearings and opportunities for local governments, consumer groups, environmental advocates and others to provide written testimony.
The rates the Commission sets will cover only Con Edison's delivery of energy, not the energy itself. For those customers who don't select a supply company, Con Edison buys electricity and natural gas on the wholesale markets, seeking stable pricing, and then provides that energy to customers without a markup and does not take a profit or a loss on the commodities.
For a copy of the rate filings and additional information, visit: conedison.com/rateplan.
Con Edison is a subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc. [NYSE: ED], one of the nation's largest investor-owned energy companies, with approximately $15 billion in annual revenues for the year-end 2023 and $69 billion in assets as of September 30, 2024. The utility delivers electricity, natural gas and steam, and serves 3.7 million customers in New York City and Westchester County. For financial, operations and customer service information, visit conEd.com.