Customer & Community

Energy Efficiency, Renewables & Distributed Energy

As part of our commitment to alternative forms of energy, Con Edison Clean Energy Businesses has invested approximately $4 billion in renewable projects in 17 states. Con Edison Development added 260 megawatts of aggregate capacity (MW AC) of renewable projects to our portfolio, for a total of 1,358 MW AC at year-end 2017. In 2018, the company announced a purchase of solar and wind plants worth $2.1 billion from Sempra Energy which makes us the second largest owner of solar photovoltaic assets in North America.

Renewable sources, such as solar and wind, produce energy when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing. That means the value of batteries to store power when it is produced, and deliver power when it is needed, is especially important to the electricity grid in terms of ensuring reliability and reducing peak demand.

Twenty-four percent of electricity used by O&R customers was generated from renewable energy resources. We continue to make our customers aware of energy efficiency improvements that will help them save money on their bills and give them more control over their energy usage. We work regularly with customers and regulators to test new models for the distribution of energy.

Energy Efficiency & Demand Response

Customers who chose energy-saving HVAC, lighting, building management systems, and other equipment received $6.2 million in incentives from us in 2017. O&R customers purchased 649 six-packs of LED lights the Monday after Thanksgiving (Cyber Monday) – the highest single-day sales for a specific product since the O&R online store went live January 2016.

Technology is giving households and businesses new ways to reduce their energy use, and we are in the forefront helping customers get more value for their money while protecting the environment. For example, upgrades made by customers in 2017 through our energy efficiency programs reduced electrical usage by 32,116 megawatt hours and saved 9,202 dekatherms of gas – equivalent to taking more than 4,200 cars off the road.

Energy Efficiency and Demand Response We’re lighting the way for senior citizens at the Mary Manning Walsh Home

Of the total O&R rebates issued during 2017, two large projects are highlighted. One is a large pharmaceutical company in Rockland County, NY, with the total project estimated to save the facility 2,926 MWh, equating to approximately $270,000 per year. The other is a large industrial company in Orange County, NY, estimated to save the customer 2,030 MWh, equating to approximately $220,000 per year.

O&R expanded My ORU Store, its online customer marketplace for energy efficiency products and services. This single online platform delivers a branded marketplace experience offering energy-wise products, home services, and program enrollments. Product categories include LED lighting, advanced power strips, water-energy saving devices, Wi-Fi thermostats, connected home products, portable power, electric vehicle chargers and home services provided by local contractors. My ORU Advisor was also launched, providing customers personalized usage analysis along with comparisons to efficient and similar homes, customized energy saving tips, product recommendations, and the ability to earn rewards for taking simple steps that help save energy and money.

Through My ORU Store, O&R partnered with the local water utility, SUEZ NY, to help support their water conservation program by offering instant rebates to mutual customers on water and energy efficient products. The program strives to help customers save water and energy and in turn lower their utility bills.

Learn more about how energy efficiency upgrades can save money and protect the environment at our Manage Energy microsite. 

Reforming the Energy Vision Projects

Con Edison continues to take a leading role in making distributed energy resources (DER) available to customers. Our Brooklyn-Queens Demand Management project aligns very nicely with New York’s Reforming the Energy Vision initiative. Instead of spending $1.2 billion to build a substation to serve Brooklyn and Queens, we issued an RFI that provided alternative forms of energy. We awarded contracts and procured smart thermostats, lighting controls, batteries, and other distributed energy resources to meet the demands of customers during the peak period of 4:00 p.m. to midnight while easing the burden on our substations. 

Additionally, our Customer Energy Solutions group is running new business model demonstrations in the areas of storage integration; electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure; community distributed generation; energy efficiency/DER marketplaces for residential and commercial customers; and delivering energy services to low- and middle-income (LMI) customers. For example, two front-of-the-meter storage projects, which demonstrate both grid support and energy market revenue-sharing partners, have been selected through a rigorous RFI process and are in the contracting stage. Three LMI demonstration projects will have been filed with the PSC third quarter 2018, including a community solar project. Three EV infrastructure projects to facilitate growth and reduce barriers to EV ownership are expected to be completed in 2018 and 2019.The new residential marketplace site, marketplace.coned.com, has 25 product categories that include a “pick my solar” module; we also have a new EV comparison shopping site, cars.coned.com.

Renewables

CECONY and O&R continue to support New York State’s ambitious clean energy policies – including the state’s goal to source 50% of its energy from renewable resources by 2030. 

For the past decade, CECONY and O&R along with Sustainable CUNY (at the City University of New York), government agencies, and other parties, have encouraged residents and businesses to consider solar to reduce their energy bills and protect the environment. Our customers are responding, using the power of the sun to have generated by year-end 2017 more than 178 megawatts of clean, renewable power through 17,770 CECONY installations, and 60 megawatts through 5,970 O&R installations – enough to power more than 24,000 homes.    

CECONY and O&R believe that all customers, regardless of their income level or whether they live in a house or an apartment, should have access to clean energy. In striving for this, CECONY is working to make renewable energy available to low-income customers by installing solar panels on company roof space and grounds, then transferring the solar power to those customers via bill credits; resources should be online in 2019.  The New York Public Service Commission says this innovative solar program “is filling a niche that hasn’t been fully served in the state.”

O&R is also working on technology advances in the interconnection process to assist customers with technical evaluations of large (greater than 50 kilowatts) and small (less than 50 kilowatts) projects. O&R is participating in an innovative project developed at the University of Vermont that received a $1.8 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative. As part of this project, O&R will help develop the technology and strategy to improve the electric grid’s ability to accommodate power generated from renewable energy sources. The award, one of only 13 given nationally, is part of SunShot’s newest program called Enabling Extreme Real-time Grid Integration of Solar Energy, or ENERGISE. 

Renewables O&R completed work on a solar installation project in Clarkstown — the first solar installation on a capped landfill in New York State

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Cumulative Utility Customer Solar MW Installation

(MWs)

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Energy Storage

In 2018, Con Edison interconnected the amount of storage on the system to total 33 behind-the-meter (BTM) batteries representing 2.3 megawatts (MW)/6.5 megawatt hours (MWh) of capability; commissioned utility-owned battery in the Brooklyn Queens Demand Management area, which became fully operational in the summer; advanced demonstration projects totaling 8 MWh to better understand energy storage capabilities and test new business and operational models; opened new opportunities for energy storage to participate in the company’s tariffs, procurements, and programs; and continued to reduce technical barriers to interconnecting energy storage, including the development of a process for interconnecting outdoor lithium-ion devices in New York City. Orange & Rockland, as of September 2018, has interconnected 128 kilowatts (kW) worth of BTM energy storage resources, increasing total interconnected capacity to 158kW. O&R is also in the process of implementing between six to eight energy storage systems as part of its non-wire alternative solicitations and a demonstration project, and anticipates having approximately 12MW/46MWh online by the end of 2019.

The demonstration projects will test a customer-sited aggregated model, a mobile battery trailer, and a front-of-the-meter (FTM) model; all are expected to be in service in summer 2019. Each project will provide distribution relief and reduce network peak demand that may have otherwise been served by utility diesel mobile or customer gasoline generators while testing the ability to garner revenues for participating in New York Independent System Operator markets. Additionally, O&R is in the planning stages of a demonstration project which consists of a 4MW/8MWh portfolio of BTM and FTM assets to test a business model aimed at generating revenue streams for multiple stakeholders. This business model will seek to meet system needs, reduce demand charges for customer, and achieve wholesale market revenues for the utility and third-party partner. Target deployment for the BTM and FTM portfolios is second quarter 2019 and fourth quarter 2019, respectively. 

Con Edison has taken the lead in addressing battery safety concerns, working closely with the Department of Buildings, the Fire Department of New York (FDNY), battery technology developers, and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) on a battery safety testing program. Con Edison and NYSERDA partnered on an effort to better characterize battery hazards and suppression agent performance through burn tests by an independent lab as well as tests by Con Edison at FDNY’s training facility, which this year resulted in a new permitting standard for outdoor and rooftop batteries. 

Con Edison and O&R continue to support the state’s energy storage goal of 1,500MW by 2025 by providing input to the Department of Public Service and NYSERDA Energy Storage Roadmap, including advocating for cost-effective storage deployments that complement other state clean energy goals and benefit the grid and all customers. As the energy system evolves, Con Edison and O&R envision storage enabling the integration of an increasing amount of intermittent renewable resources, supporting distribution system needs, providing resilience, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Broader proliferation of storage will help customers and communications manage their usage to align with system capabilities, participate in other energy programs, support new applications like electric vehicle charging, and respond to more cost-reflective rate designs.