Company type | Public |
---|---|
Industry | Energy |
Founded | March 26, 1823– as New York Gas Light Company 1871 – Harlem Gas Light Company 1884 – Consolidated Gas Company |
Headquarters | Consolidated Edison Building , New York City , U.S. |
Area served | New York metropolitan area |
Key people | Tim Cawley (CEO) [1] |
Services |
|
Revenue | US$14.66 billion (2023) [2] |
US$3.196 billion (2023) [2] | |
US$2.516 billion (2023) [2] | |
Total assets | US$66.33 billion (2023) [2] |
Total equity | US$21.16 billion (2023) [2] |
Number of employees | 14,592 (2023) [2] |
Website | coned |
Consolidated Edison, Inc., commonly known as Con Edison (stylized as conEdison) or ConEd, is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the United States, with approximately $12 billion in annual revenues as of 2017, and over $62 billion in assets. [3] The company provides a wide range of energy-related products and services to its customers through its subsidiaries:
In 2015, electric revenues accounted for 70.35% of consolidated sales (70.55% in 2014); gas revenues 13.61% (14.96% in 2014); steam revenues 5.01% (4.86% in 2014); and non-utility revenues of 11.02% (9.63% in 2014). [4]
In March 1823, Con Edison's earliest corporate predecessor, the New York Gas Light Company, was founded by a consortium of New York City investors. A year later, it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Due to the Board of Aldermen's authority to grant franchises in the City of New York in the early to mid-19th century, interaction with Tammany Hall was required to expand the business. By William M. Tweed's reign in the late 1860s as the boss of Tammany Hall, the power to authorize franchises lay with the County Board of Supervisors, of which Tweed had been a member. By 1871, Tweed was a member of the board of the Harlem Gas Light Company, a precursor to the Consolidated Edison Company. [5] In 1884, six gas companies combined into the Consolidated Gas Company.
In 1901, the Consolidated Gas Company bought Edison Illuminating Company, which had been founded by Thomas Edison in 1880, first supplying electricity to 59 customers in a square-mile area in lower Manhattan. After the "war of currents", more than 30 companies were generating and distributing electricity in New York City and Westchester County. But by 1920 there were far fewer, and Consolidated Gas's electricity arm, now called the New York Edison Company, was the leader. In 1936, with electric sales far outstripping gas sales, the company incorporated and the name was changed to Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc.
The New York Steam Company began providing service in Lower Manhattan in 1882. Con Edison bought it in 1954, and now operates the largest commercial steam system in the world, providing steam service to nearly 1,600 commercial and residential establishments in Manhattan from Battery Park to 96th Street. [6]
Consolidated Edison acquired or merged with more than a dozen companies between 1936 and 1960. Con Edison today is the result of acquisitions, dissolutions, and mergers of more than 170 individual electric, gas, and steam companies.
Consolidated Edison acquired land on the Hudson River in Buchanan, NY, in 1954 for the Indian Point nuclear power plant. The first reactor (Indian Point 1) began generating power on September 16, 1962. The reactor was shut down on October 31, 1974, because the emergency core cooling system did not meet regulatory requirements. The company built two more reactors at Indian Point during the 1970s: Indian Point 2 and 3. Indian Point 3 was sold to the New York Power Authority in 1975. [7] Entergy acquired Indian Point 2 in November 2000, [8] nine months after a steam generator leak. [9] With the sale of Indian Point 2, the last power plant it owned, Consolidated Edison, Inc. became primarily an energy distributor. [8]
On January 1, 1998, following the deregulation of the utility industry in New York State, a holding company, Consolidated Edison, Inc., was formed. It is one of the nation's largest investor-owned energy companies, with approximately $13 billion in annual revenues and $47 billion in assets. The company provides a wide range of energy-related products and services to its customers through two regulated utility subsidiaries and three competitive energy businesses. Under several corporate names, the company has been traded on the NYSE without interruption since 1824—longer than any other NYSE stock. Its largest subsidiary, Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc., provides electric, gas, and steam service to more than 3 million customers in New York City and Westchester County, New York, an area of 660 square miles (1,700 km2) with a population of nearly 9 million. Also in 1998, Consolidated Edison, Inc. acquired Orange & Rockland Utilities, which is operated separately. [10]
Con Edison had invested $3 billion in solar and wind projects. In September 2017 it was announced that the company would invest $1.25 billion in "renewable energy production facilities over the next three years." [11]
The company's "renewable portfolio" contained more than 1.5 gigawatts of operating capacity. Seventy-five percent of that capacity came from solar energy. Clean energy accounted for around eight percent of the company's earnings, as of fall 2017. [11] Con Edison sold its clean energy business to RWE in 2023. [12]
To support electric vehicles, Con Edison partnered with the company FleetCarma to provide $500 in rewards to owners of electric vehicles in New York City and Westchester County, New York. Through this program, Con Edison pays customers to charge their vehicles when energy demand is low. [13]
The Con Edison electrical transmission system utilizes voltages of 138 kilovolts (kV), 345 kV, and 500 kV. The company has two 345 kV interconnections with upstate New York that enable it to import power from Hydro-Québec in Canada and one 345 kV interconnection each with Public Service Electric and Gas (PSE&G) in New Jersey and Long Island. Con Edison's connection with Hydro-Québec is via a series of transmission lines owned by the New York Power Authority and neighboring utilities; a more direct connection via the Champlain Hudson Power Express HVDC line is expected to come online in 2025. [14]
Con Edison is also interconnected with PSE&G via the Branchburg-Ramapo 500 kV line. Con Ed's distribution voltages are 33 kV, 27 kV, 13 kV, and 4 kV.
The 93,000 miles (150,000 km) of underground cable in the Con Edison system could wrap around the Earth 3.6 times. Nearly 36,000 miles (58,000 km) of overhead electric wires complement the underground system—enough cable to stretch between New York and Los Angeles 13 times. [15]
The Con Edison gas system has nearly 7,200 miles (11,600 km) of pipes—if laid end to end, long enough to reach Paris and back to New York City, and serves Westchester County, the Bronx, Manhattan, and parts of Queens. Gas service in Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the rest of Queens is provided by National Grid USA's New York City operations, except the Rockaway peninsula, which is serviced by National Grid's Long Island operations. The average volume of gas that travels through Con Edison's gas system annually could fill the Empire State Building nearly 6,100 times. [16]
Con Edison produces 30 billion pounds of steam each year through its seven power plants which boil water to 1,000 °F (538 °C) before distributing it to hundreds of buildings in the New York City steam system, which is the biggest district steam system in the world. [17] Steam traveling through the system is used to heat and cool some of New York's most famous addresses, including the United Nations complex, the Empire State Building, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. [18]
The Smart Meter Project was awarded to Aclara Smart Grid Solutions (electric) and the majority of the rollout was completed in 2022 with several thousand meters still needing to be changed in 2023 due to customer access issues. ConEd utilized Aclara's metering products for field installation. Over five million electric and gas meters were replaced in this project. Lime green-colored seals were used on electric meters to indicate that the meter was changed by a contractor.
ConEd offers a variety of programs and resources for its customers and stakeholders, organized in such categories as, "For Renters", "For Residential Owners", "For Small & Medium Businesses", "For Commercial & Industrial", "Business Partners", "Investors", "Community Affairs", and "Municipalities". [19] Examples of such resources include:
Con Edison contributes substantial funding and volunteer hours to many non-profit organizations and learning centers including New York Botanical Garden, Hudson Valley Groundworks Science Barge, Teatown Reservation, Jay Heritage Center, and the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.
ConEd Solutions is a member of Real Estate Board of New York. [22]
On January 14, 2009, eleven Con Edison supervisors were arrested for demanding more than $1 million in kickbacks related to work done by a construction company that was repairing the Midtown steam pipe eruption of 2007. According to federal prosecutors, the employees had approved payment for work that was unnecessary or not performed and promised faster payment for some work performed by the construction company in exchange for the bribes. The FBI had two retired Con Edison employees and the president of the construction company wear recording devices that recorded the suspects demanding bribes of between $1000 and $5000. [48] Later that year Con Edison sued Brendan Maher, one of the construction supervisors who was arrested and later admitted to taking bribes that the utility company claimed amounted to $10,000. [49]
In April 2016, Con Edison agreed to pay over $171 million, about 1.5% of its annual revenue, back to its customers in compensation for harm resulting from the bribery. The Public Service Commission had found that Con Edison failed to supervise the employees. Con Edison admitted no wrongdoing. [50]
● In March 2002, Fortune magazine named the company as one of "America's Most Admired Companies" in the publication's newest corporate ranking survey. In 2003, Con Edison ranked second on the top ten list for electric and gas utilities. [51]
● In December 2011, the non-partisan organization Public Campaign released a report criticizing ConEd for spending $1.8 million on lobbying and not paying any taxes during 2008–2010, instead getting $127 million in tax rebates, despite making a profit of $4.2 billion, and increasing executive pay by 82% to $17.4 million in 2010 for its top five executives. [52]
● In 2014, Con Edison was named the #1 utility and #16 overall among corporations, in Newsweek 's Green Rankings, and one of the 50 best companies for Latinas by Latina Style Magazine. [53] In its "Best of the Best" issue in 2015, Hispanic Network Magazine named the company a top employer among energy, gas, and oil companies. [54] Con Edison was also selected as one of the top regional utilities by DiversityInc magazine in 2014. [55] In 2016, the company was listed among America's best large employers by Forbes .[ citation needed ]
● In February 2021, The Energy and Policy Institute criticized Con Edison for touting clean energy while investing in Gas Infrastructure. [56] This is unclean fracked gas. (Fracked gas is methane gas produced by hydraulic fracturing.) The article explained, "A recent analysis of utility executive compensation by the Energy and Policy Institute found that Con Edison’s executive compensation policies include renewable energy growth as components of broader goals, but do not reward executives for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
When a New York City contractor is unable to repair a reported nonfunctioning or malfunctioning street light, traffic light or pedestrian Walk/Don't Walk light because of a failure in the power to the affected unit, [57] : p. 92 a stop tag is assigned by Con Ed. [58] When a caller to NYC's 311 asks for followup information about a reported outage, they're told the stop tag number, and told to call Con Ed at 800-752-6633 (800-75-CON-ED). [59]
The New York Times wrote that it can take over two years for some repairs. [58] Sometimes an entire fixture must be removed, repaired, then returned. Other times the streets must be torn up to replace underground wiring. Temporary fixes, using what was described as "nothing more than overhead extension cords" (called "Shunts") at times are left in place for an extended period. [58] In 2017 Con Ed committed to repair "at least 90% ... within 90 days." [57] : p. 92
A former Con Edison building on West 53rd Street in Manhattan was converted first into the studio for the television game show Let's Make a Deal , and later into a recording studio called "Power Station" because of its Edison history. In 1996, the studio was renamed Avatar Studios and then in 2017 back to "Power Station".
In 1978, Con Edison sold the Excelsior Power Company Building, a former substation on Gold Street in Manhattan's Financial District. It was renovated into an apartment building, [60] and became a New York City designated landmark in 2016. [61]
The northeast blackout of 1965 was a significant disruption in the supply of electricity on Tuesday, November 9, 1965, affecting parts of Ontario in Canada and Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont in the United States. Over 30 million people and 80,000 square miles (207,000 km2), and a population density of 144.9 inhabitants/km2 were left without electricity for up to 13 hours.
The New York City blackout of 1977 was an electricity blackout that affected most of New York City on July 13–14, 1977. The only unaffected neighborhoods in the city were in southern Queens, which were part of the Long Island Lighting Company system, as well as the Pratt Institute campus in Brooklyn, and a few other large apartment and commercial complexes that operated their own power generators.
The Public Service Enterprise Group, Inc. (PSEG) is a publicly traded diversified energy company headquartered in Newark, New Jersey, US, established in 1985 with a legacy dating back to 1903.
Southern California Edison (SCE), the largest subsidiary of Edison International, is the primary electric utility company for much of Southern California. It provides 15 million people with electricity across a service territory of approximately 50,000 square miles.
Pearl Street Station was Thomas Edison's first commercial power plant in the United States. It was located at 255–257 Pearl Street in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City, just south of Fulton Street on a site measuring 50 by 100 feet. The station was built by the Edison Illuminating Company, under the direction of Francis Upton, hired by Thomas Edison.
Constellation Energy Corporation is an American energy company headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. The company provides electric power, natural gas, and energy management services. It has approximately two million customers across the continental United States.
Eugene (Gene) R. McGrath in Yonkers, New York is an American businessman with extensive experience in engineering, operations, and executive management in the utility industry. McGrath was the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc., a regulated utility providing electric, gas, and steam service in New York City and Westchester County, New York. The company is a subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc., the largest utility in one of the largest urban metropolitan areas in the world. A native New Yorker, McGrath spent his entire professional career with Con Edison. He has been listed as one of America's Most Powerful People in Forbes magazine.
DTE Energy is a Detroit-based diversified energy company involved in the development and management of energy-related businesses and services in the United States and Canada. Its operating units include an electric utility serving 2.2 million customers and a natural gas utility serving 1.3 million customers in Michigan.
The 2006 Queens blackout was a series of power outages that affected the northwest section of the New York City borough Queens in July 2006. The blackout primarily affected the neighborhoods of Astoria, Long Island City, Sunnyside, and Woodside. The outages affected 174,000 people, caused business losses of tens of millions of dollars, caused airport and transit delays and cancellations, and caused unsavory living conditions due to a concurrent heat wave.
On July 18, 2007, an explosion in Manhattan, New York City, sent a geyser of hot steam up from beneath a busy intersection, with a 40-story-high shower of mud and flying debris raining down on the crowded streets of Midtown Manhattan. It was caused by the failure of an 83-year-old, 24-inch (0.61 m) underground steam pipe near Grand Central Terminal, which exploded during the evening rush hour. 45 people were injured, and one woman died of a heart attack while fleeing.
The New York City steam system includes Con Edison's Steam Operations, which provides steam to large parts of Manhattan. Other smaller systems provide steam to New York University and Columbia University, and many individual buildings in New York City also have their own steam systems. The steam is used to heat and cool buildings and for cleaning and disinfecting. It is the largest such system in the world and has been in operation since 1882.
Evergy, Inc. is an American investor-owned utility (IOU) with publicly traded stock with headquarters in Topeka, Kansas, and in Kansas City, Missouri. The company was formed from a merger of Westar Energy of Topeka and Great Plains Energy of Kansas City, parent company of Kansas City Power & Light. Evergy is the largest electric company in Kansas, serving more than 1.7 million residential, commercial and industrial customers in Kansas and Missouri. Its more than 40 power plants have generating capacity of 16,000 megawatt electricity in Kansas and Missouri. Service territory covers 28,130 square miles (72,900 km2) in east Kansas and west Missouri. It owns more than 10,100 miles (16,300 km) of transmission lines and about 52,000 miles (84,000 km) of distribution lines.
Charles Edward Emery was an American civil engineer.
The New York Public Service Commission is the public utilities commission of the New York state government that regulates and oversees the electric, gas, water, and telecommunication industries in New York as part of the Department of Public Service. The department's regulations are compiled in title 16 of the New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. The current chairman of the Commission and chief executive of the Department is Rory M. Christian. His term began on June 10, 2021 and runs through February 1, 2027.
Ravenswood Generating Station is a 2,480 megawatt power plant in Long Island City in Queens, New York City. It is owned and operated by LS Power/Helix Energy Solutions Group. The plant is fueled primarily by fuel oil and natural gas which heats the boilers.
On March 12, 2014, an explosion occurred at 9:31 a.m. in the East Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The explosion leveled two apartment buildings located just north of 116th Street at 1644 and 1646 Park Avenue, killing eight people, injuring at least 70 others, and displacing 100 families. City officials initially pointed to a gas leak as the cause of the blast. In June 2015, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) blamed the explosion on failures by Consolidated Edison and the city. The NTSB also agreed to review Whistleblower Gas Explosion Audit Findings from the 2009 Floral Park Queens gas explosion as part of their East Harlem Gas Explosion Investigation. The NTSB were unable to resolve these hazards found with merit by the New York State Public Service Commission (NYSPSC) and they remain a Public Safety Hazard today.
The West Side of Manhattan in New York City experienced a power failure on July 13, 2019, at approximately 7 p.m. EDT. Con Edison is the energy utility serving the area, and they reported that approximately 73,000 customers were without power. Power was fully restored by midnight. The power failure occurred on the 42nd anniversary of the New York City blackout of 1977, which left nine million customers without power.
Waterside Generating Station was a power station in Manhattan, New York City, that opened in 1901 and was one of the first power plants in the United States that generated electricity using steam turbines. Built by the New York Edison Company, the facility was located in the Murray Hill neighborhood on the east side of First Avenue between East 38th and 40th streets, alongside the East River. The Waterside station also later served as a cogeneration facility and generated steam for the New York City steam system.
Kips Bay Generating Station was a steam plant in Manhattan, New York City, that operated from 1926 until 1987. The facility was located in the Murray Hill neighborhood on the east side of First Avenue between East 35th and 36th streets, alongside the East River. Originally built by the New York Steam Corporation, the plant produced steam for the New York City steam system and was later operated by Consolidated Edison after merger of the companies. The steam plant was demolished from 1987 to 1994. As part of the decommissioning and sale of Con Edison's nearby Waterside Generating Station in 2005, the former site of the Kips Bay Generating Station was sold to a private developer, remediated, and redeveloped into high-rise apartments and a school.
With district steam service commencing in 1882, Con Edison owns and operates the largest downtown steam system in the world, serving over 1600 buildings with steam supplied from multiple combined heat and power facilities with total capacity of 21,755 (Mlbs/hr) and 627 MW. In 1999, Con Ed completed the ten-year Steam Enhancement program, investing over $200 million in system upgrades and maintenance.[ permanent dead link ]
Con Edison operates one of the most complex electric power systems in the world. It is also the world's most reliable.
Con Edison distributes natural gas to 1.1 million customers in Manhattan, the Bronx, and portions of Queens and Westchester County, making us one of the larger gas distribution companies in the United States.
When John Velez, co-owner of Sutton Cleaners, arrives at work at 7 a.m. on Manhattan's East Side, he opens a steam valve in the back of his shop. 'When I come into the shop in the morning, it's one, two, three,' he says, 'and you're up and running in less than a minute.'
The New York Steam Company began providing service in lower Manhattan in 1882. Today, Con Edison operates the largest steam system in the world. The system contains approximately 105 miles (169 km) of mains and service pipes and 3,000 steam manholes. Steam is provided from seven Con Edison steam-generating plants, five in Manhattan, one in Queens, and one in Brooklyn, along with receiving steam under contract from a steam plant at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
More than 200 residents of a Gramercy Park apartment building that was heavily damaged in a steam-pipe explosion over the weekend were ordered from their homes last night after tests showed what a Consolidated Edison official called "extremely high" levels of asbestos fibers throughout the building.
Consolidated Edison, responding to testing requirements imposed after a woman (Jodie Lane) was electrocuted while walking her dog in the East Village in 2004, found 1,214 instances of stray voltage during a yearlong examination of electrical equipment on city streets, officials disclosed at a City Council hearing yesterday.
The steam pipe rupture at Lexington Avenue and East 41 Street on July 18 was caused by a bubble-collapse water hammer that generated a momentary force against the pipe's wall that was more than seven times greater than the pipe's normal operating pressure, according to reports issued today by two independent experts commissioned by Con Edison. The pipe itself was found to be in good condition and did not contribute to the event.
Consolidated Edison Inc. has 170 employees who have tested positive for Covid-19, and three have died, according to spokesman Michael Clendenin.
The victims are Melissa Tucker, who worked within Con Ed's construction sector since 2017, Adrian Phillips who worked in customer operations for more than two decades and Joe Cardona, a business agent within the Local 12, the Utility Workers Union of America.
Con Edison will not shut off electric, natural gas or steam service due to payment difficulties resulting from the health crisis. And we are waiving new late-payment charges for all customers. What's more, we're suspending the fee usually charged to a customer who is unable to grant access to their property.
To follow up on a street light work order with a stop tag number, call Con Edison