Customers

Energy Efficiency

Our energy efficiency programs are a prime example of a sustainable effort – by reducing demand we reduce the cost burden for our customers (community), reduce emissions associated with electric generation (environment), and reduce our system peak, helping us defer large capital investments (business value).

Distributed Generation and Microgrids

Throughout the service territories of the regulated utilities, we are working to empower customers’ innovative energy choices, with an emphasis on targeted areas. There has been strong customer interest in distributed generation, and we are seeing rapid growth. As we strive to meet our customers’ needs and expectations, a focus on distributed generation is critical.

The primary type of distributed generation (DG) in terms of MW installed is combined heat and power (CHP). At Con Edison of New York (CECONY), 90 MW of large (greater than 1 MW) CHP projects came online between 2006 and 2011. Though large project installation slowed in 2011, there are multiple projects in development and we expect and additional 100 MW of large CHP by 2018. Small CHP (less than 1 MW) has also experienced strong growth thanks to a new, modular-CHP incentive program we developed with The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). In the Orange and Rockland (O&R) territories, over 22 MW of CHP has been installed.

While CHP installations have been significant, CECONY and O&R customers have rapidly been installing solar photovoltaic (PV) panels as well. An additional 1,190 (CECONY – 745, O&R – 445) customers installed solar PV last year alone, growing from 33 MW (CECONY – 20.2 MW, O&R – 12.78 MW) at the start of 2013 to 53 MW (CECONY – 34.8 MW, O&R – 18.21 MW) end of year throughout CECONY and O&R’s territories. Solar power production has quadrupled across our service territory in the last three years, with a compound annual growth rate of 75 percent.

Additionally, more than 50 MW (CECONY – 37.3 MW, O&R – 12.7 MW) of solar PV development are in the queue for interconnection. Large customer solar installations are on the rise thanks to a new NYSERDA incentive for commercial installations greater than 200 kW.

We continue to lead by example in green business practices and recently installed more than 200 panels at our corporate headquarters at 4 Irving Place in Manhattan. The panels, manufactured in the United States, generate 40 kilowatts of clean, renewable power. The annual electricity savings – about $7,000 – will be available for other investments on behalf of ratepayers.

Along with assisting customers with the integration of DG projects onto our grid, the company has also worked toward other DG achievements in 2013 that included:

• The release of a new interconnection guide for large (2-20 MW) CHP projects
• Decreased PV interconnection processing time for residential customers through the utilization of a self-certification form in which the solar installer can self-perform the verification test for PV system 25 kW and under
• Leveraged smart-grid technology to implement multi-MW solar installations at locations such as Ramapo College and the Clarkstown Landfills in Orange and Rockland’s territory, and a 1.6-MW installation at Jetro Cash & Carry in the Con Edison of New York territory
• Introduced a new offset tariff/rate for Con Edison of New York customers that reduces the installation cost of campus-style cogeneration (General Rule 20.2.1B(7)&(8))
• Advocated for “downstate balancing” and targeted incentives that are creating record incentive levels for DG.

Distributed generation will continue to be an area of growth and focus in 2014 and beyond. We will continue to identify ways that we can partner with our customers and regulators to ensure that customers are able to produce the power they want while keeping the distribution grid reliable and affordable for all.

Oil-to-Gas Conversions

In 2011, the City of New York passed regulations phasing out the use of #4 and #6 heavy fuel oils. These fuel oils are typically only used to heat large buildings. When the fuel is combusted, soot and smog-forming pollutants are released into the atmosphere. As part of the city’s goals to reduce local pollutant emissions and improve air quality, the city will stop issuing new permits for #6 heavy fuel oil by the end of 2015, and will do the same for #4 fuel oil by the end of 2030. Con Edison anticipates that many of these large buildings will want to convert their primary fuel source to natural gas supplied from the company’s gas distribution system.

Con Edison of New York estimated that 70 percent of the buildings in New York City that burn #4 or #6 heating oil were located within its gas distribution system’s service territory. New demand for gas services is creating opportunities for the company to grow our gas business, but it also poses challenges to the logistics of our operations and the management of our infrastructure.

We are seeing not only an increase in customers due to the NYC regulation requirements, but also an increase in #2 conversions due to customers’ interest in a lower costing source of fuel. In 2013 we worked with customers to convert 780 New York City buildings burning #4 or #6 fuel oil and 513 from #2 oil, resulting in a reduction of 176 tons of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), and over 140,000 tons of CO₂e. A total of over 2,400 conversions have occurred in Con Edison of New York’s system over the last three years, with projections for 2014 totaling more than 2,000 additional conversions.

Although Orange and Rockland counties in New York do not have any regulatory requirements associated with conversion, Orange and Rockland is also experiencing growth due to oil-to-gas (OTG) conversion, adding over 5,000 customers in the last 4 years due to OTG conversions and new development. In 2013, 353 conversions from oil or propane to natural gas were completed, representing the highest natural gas conversion rate in the last four years.

To help manage these opportunities and challenges, Con Edison is tracking and setting annual goals for the number of customers who convert from heavy fuel oil to natural gas. At Con Edison of New York, we strive to get all customers connected at zero cost. The traditional approach was to connect customers on an individual basis (85 percent of those requesting received zero cost); however, with the new Area Growth Strategy, 97 percent received zero cost.

Con Edison of New York’s Area Growth Strategy started in 2012 (first zones constructed in 2013) but the existing tariff was limiting. Working for more than 18 months with New York State Public Service Commission Staff, we were granted permission to use our proposed tariff amendment. Approved by the Commission in November with an effective date December 1, 2013, the new Area Growth tariff allows us to aggregate customers in a new way and evaluates projects based on their economics. Customers who previously would have a very high cost are now able to benefit from aggregating a larger area and get service for no cost. If one customer makes the entire project uneconomical, the company has flexibility to revise the boundaries of the zone. In short, this new tariff amendment allows us to apply a new revenue test and more closely align capital costs with actual anticipated revenue.

Please visit our Oil-to-Gas Conversion website for more information, including how to begin the gas conversion process for your building.

Electric Vehicles

The federal government has pledged to invest significant funds in alternative-fuel vehicles to address climate change and reduce carbon emissions. Con Edison recognizes the benefits of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) as a green technology offering drivers greater fuel-economy or using no fuel at all. For these reasons, the company is committed to making the transition from gasoline to electric vehicles as simple and convenient as possible.

In 2013, Con Edison had 2,040 electric vehicles throughout the Con Edison of New York and Orange and Rockland service territories, more than tripling the population of 666 in 2012. We anticipate that number to increase exponentially as consumer awareness rises and prices plateau. We anticipate 4,000 electric vehicles on the system by 2015, and we are preparing for as many as 40,000 electric vehicles to plug in by 2020.

By encouraging energy-efficiency, off-peak charging, demand response programming, and distributed generation development, we will be able to manage the new loads for these electric vehicles on our grid. Con Edison will look to offer incentives to encourage customers to charge their PEVs during off-peak hours. As a step towards this effort, the Company offers a new residential time of use rate as of March 1, 2013 with a one-year price guarantee for EV customers.

Additionally, Con Edison is expanding its EV Pilot Program to up to 50 participants. The objective of the pilot is to test alternative metering technology to measure EV load separate from whole house load, and to monitor charging habits of our customers. This will help us understand how customers charge their PEVs or if customers are willing and able to shift their charging to off-peak times. The information collected will help us develop future EV-specific time of use rates.

Information Needs

All Con Edison companies maintain web sites to provide useful information to customers and the public. We are working to provide expanded access for customers and we are increasing our use of various technologies to provide more dynamic, easier, quicker and more direct, interactions.

We have nearly 1.5 million customer e-mail addresses on file at Con Edison of New York and 86,500 at Orange and Rockland. This allows us to use e-mail for communicating with customers regarding storm preparations, energy-efficiency, and safety. We have also implemented a program to e-mail notices of routine and emergency work to customers in an affected area. During power outages, restoration updates are provided by e-mail. Also, customers can use e-mail to contact us to make inquiries and requests and receive account information such as account statements.

We recognize the potential of communicating with customers through their smartphones and we currently have about 740,000 cell phone numbers on file for Con Edison of New York customers. So far we are using text messaging to communicate outage information. Users can alert Con Edison that they are without power from any of the registered numbers associated with the account, request their estimated time of restoration (ETR) via text and receive the ETR in a text reply message. The application is being enhanced for customers to receive restoration notifications via text and be sent predictive and proactive text notifications regarding outages via text message. We foresee this capability being used by multiple family members who wish to receive updates on outages. Customer usage of the smartphone to interact with Con Edison of New York has increased exponentially. With the introduction of more self-service applications and the increasing customer ownership of smartphones, customer usage of our mobile version has grown from 148,000 visits in 2010, to just over 2 million visits in 2013. To date, mobile users accounted for roughly 23 percent of Con Edison of New York’s overall web traffic.

We are focused on meeting our customers’ expectations and bringing them new ways to do business with us. Our daily conversations with customers on Twitter allow us to build our follower base and provide useful information about energy efficiency, storm preparations, community news, and renewable energy. The key to engagement is to keep the content appealing and interesting. Along with online and mobile initiatives, we are able to leverage our everyday paths of customer communication during storms or other emergencies.

As part of our post-Sandy effort to improve communications, we streamlined our online storm central site, making it easier for customers to report outages, check their restoration times, find valuable safety tips, and advice on how to prepare for a storm.

Online videos, posted on our website, sent out on twitter, embedded in e-blasts to customers and press releases to the media, have proven to be popular with our stakeholders. Our videos provide customers with information and advice ranging from how to save money on their bills to explaining how we restore power after a storm. More than 130,000 people have viewed them during 2013. Energy conservation tips consistently prove the most popular. We’re pleased that our successful engagement with customers using social media continues to gain recognition such as the Bulldog Reporter awarding Con Edison their Digital and Social PR Gold Medal for “Best Crisis Response” during Superstorm Sandy.

Energy and Value

We recognize the importance of energy affordability for our customers. Our company continues to focus on the entire customer bill as well as the value customers get from our services, including the reliability of the system. We continue to make good progress on optimizing capital investment through supporting demand side management and employing new system designs and planning process improvements.

Roughly two thirds of the customer bill is accounted for by non-delivery costs, including supply costs and taxes and fees, and we recognize that we must advocate for our customers in all of these areas in order to help control costs.

For those customers who have challenges making their payments, there are options for assistance. Low-income customers are eligible for discount programs for both the Con Edison of New York and Orange and Rockland Electric and Gas services. Participants in the Con Edison of New York electric low income discount program will now receive a $9.50 discount (an increase of $1.00 from last year). For the low-income gas program, participants who use gas for heating receive a discount of $7.25 discount on their monthly minimum charge, as well as a discount of $0.4880 per therm for usage in the 4-90 therm block. Low-income program participants who only use gas for cooking receive a $1.50 discount on their monthly minimum charge. At Orange and Rockland, participants in the electric low income discount program who heat with electric will receive a $17.40 bill credit while all other electric customers will receive a $8.00 bill credit (an increase of $1.00 from last year). For the low-income gas program, participants receive a bill credit of $11.63 on their monthly bill.

Both Con Edison of New York and Orange and Rockland provide funding through customer and employee contributions for programs that provides financial assistance to customers who find themselves temporarily unable to pay their utility or home-heating bills because of emergency conditions. The Con Edison of New York program is called EnergyShare, and it is administered by a local human services agency. The O&R program in New York State is called The Neighbor Fund, and in New Jersey the program is called NJ Shares. Both are administered by human service agencies in the local communities.

In addition, both company web sites provide information for customers to contact the Home Energy Assistance Program, commonly referred to as HEAP. HEAP is a federally funded program that assists low-income individuals with the cost of heating their homes. HEAP also offers an emergency benefit for households in a heat or heat-related energy emergency. The HEAP heating equipment repair and replacement component is available to help eligible low-income homeowners repair or replace primary heating equipment necessary to keep the home’s primary heating source functional.