Operational Excellence

Core System Upgrades

The Advanced Meter Infrastructure (AMI) project consists of 5.3 million smart meters—comprised of roughly 4.0 million electric smart meters and 1.3 million gas devices—which are being deployed across our service territories and will result in significant environmental, operational, and customer benefits.

Smart meters put unprecedented control into the hands of our customers. With the Company’s updated website and digital customer experience, customers can see their energy usage in near real-time and make smarter, more informed decisions about managing their energy usage, controlling costs, and helping the environment.

Deployment of the communications network and smart meters began in 2017 and is on target to be substantially complete by the end of 2022. More than 20,000 communications network devices have been installed throughout the Company’s entire service area. In 2017, meter installations began in Staten Island, Westchester, and Rockland County and mass deployment has been completed in these areas as well as Orange and Sullivan Counties. Mass meter deployment continues in Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens.

To date, approximately 4.9 million devices have been installed. The AMI Operations Control Center has been staffed 24/7 to monitor the communications network, as well as the meters and gas modules connected to the network.

The AMI project team has worked closely with Gas Operations and the AMI vendor to develop a first-of-its-kind, battery-powered natural gas detector that is integrated with the smart meter communications network. The natural gas detectors are safety devices that monitor the atmosphere where Con Edison’s gas pipes enter our customers’ homes and buildings. They provide an alert when natural gas levels in that area indicate a potentially dangerous leak. Through the AMI communications network, the detectors send a wireless alert to Con Edison if a potential gas leak has been detected, allowing Con Edison and the local fire department to respond quickly. A pilot program to install 9,000 detectors began in October 2018 in parts of Westchester County and this pilot was extended into Manhattan in 2019. The pilot program has been completed and the Company began a multi-year program in September 2020 to deploy the natural gas detectors across our service territories.

Smart meter data provides CECONY and O&R with insight into outages and restoration, allowing us to see when a customer has power and to avoid sending a crew to a location where power has already been restored. These avoided “truck rolls” reduce costs as well as assist in our overall environmental goals by reducing CO2 emissions. In 2021, over 12,000 unnecessary truck rolls were avoided. The additional insight which smart meters provide regarding outages and restorations allows us to update how we address “nested” or “embedded” outages. These embedded outages are often not readily identified and are only found when we energize our electrical facilities. The AMI system can quickly notify operators of these conditions while enhancing the restoration communications that customers receive. Improvements in this area will continue over the next few years.

AMI also lets the Company operate the system at optimal voltages—known as conservation voltage optimization—reducing total energy consumption, as well as associated power-generation emissions. Analysis shows that information from the AMI system can reduce energy usage across our service territory by approximately 1.5% on average, decreasing associated fuel use for committed generation resources. This results in an environmental reduction of 1.9% of total CO2 emissions, due to reduction of power generated annually by fossil fuel plants across our service territory. Engineers and planners will get more granular data, enabling potential design and operational improvements. CECONY began implementing voltage optimization in Staten Island at the end of 2018 and across Westchester and portions of Manhattan in 2019 as well as Bronx and Brooklyn in 2020. As of the end of 2021, voltage optimization has been implemented across 80 of 82 load areas across CECONY’s service territory.

CECONY invested $993 million in our transmission and distribution systems in New York City and Westchester County in 2021 to improve the safety, reliability, and resiliency of the electric system. We invested in new customer connections and increased system capacity – including projects that facilitate the clean energy transition, replacement of defective or obsolete equipment, and system enhancements to reduce risk of outages or prolonged outages due to extreme weather events and high summer loads. Examples of resiliency investments include replacement of overhead lines with insulated lines that are more able to withstand impacts of extreme weather. To prepare for the summer 2021, CECONY invested in upgrades and reinforcements of distribution transformers, underground feeder sections, and spans of overhead cable.

We will invest roughly $1.8 billion in 2022 on continued improvements in system safety, reliability, and resiliency and continue to invest in the infrastructure upgrades needed to support clean energy goals. In preparation for summer of 2022, CECONY will install cable and equipment to meet summer peak loads.

As part of the clean energy transition, CECONY will invest approximately $268 million in 2022 towards new transmission infrastructure. The Reliable Clean City Projects (RCCP) are three multiyear transmission system projects that will create additional pathways for renewable energy and facilitate the retirement of select fossil generation units. All three projects are scheduled to be completed by the summer of 2025.

Electric Transmission Pipe Enhancement

We are planning to invest $26 million in 2022 to upgrade our underground dielectric fluid-filled electric transmission cables. We plan to address 3,500 trench feet of leak-prone transmission pipe-type feeder cables using the method of installing welded steel sleeves or barrels in corroded areas.

In 2021, we refurbished a total of 4,817 trench feet of piping. We expect to continue to make significant progress in research and development to reduce the potential for future dielectric fluid spills. We are also continuing to pursue efforts to replace existing dielectric fluid-filled feeders with solid dielectric cable.

The bulk of our underground transmission system consists of 660 miles of 69-, 138-, and 345- kilovolt feeders encased in steel pipe surrounded by high-pressure dielectric fluid (a non-toxic synthetic compound similar to mineral oil). The conductors inside our steel pipes are wrapped in paper insulation, filled, and pressurized with the dielectric fluid at a nominal pressure of 200 pounds per square inch. In some feeders the dielectric fluid is circulated and cooled to provide enhanced current-carrying capability. Approximately nine million gallons of dielectric fluid is contained within the feeder pipes and the associated pressurization and cooling plants.

Our leak-detection methods are some of the most sophisticated in the world:

• We use real-time monitoring of some of the largest volume feeders to constantly check their integrity.
• We infuse our dielectric fluid with a special tracer to help us rapidly locate and uncover leaks.
• If significant leaks occur, we selectively remove feeders from service, placing them on reduced pressure to slow the leak rate.

To repair leaks, we excavate to uncover the feeder pipes and apply a mechanical clamp to stop the flow. Permanent repairs are complete when a concentric steel barrel is welded over the clamp and the pipe. The pipe is then re-coated before the excavation is restored.

Reliability Performance

Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. (CECONY) is a recognized leader in electric reliability performance, consistently earning industry awards. Our overall electric system reliability in 2021 was 99.996%.

CECONY’s system reliability exceeds national and New York standards

*National and New York State numbers from 2020

CECONY’s electric system is comprised of an overhead system as well as the largest underground network in the U.S.

The standards for measuring the reliability of distribution service are the System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI) and the Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI). SAIFI is compiled annually, and the figure represents the number of service interruptions divided by the number of customers served. CAIDI, also compiled annually, represents the average time to restore service to interrupted customers. The CAIDI figure results from the total customer minutes of interruption divided by the total number of customers affected. For both figures, a low number indicates a better performance.

2021 NUMBERS FOR CECONY (electric)

SAIFI:   0.139
CAIDI:  141 minutes

2021 NUMBERS FOR O&R (electric)

SAIFI:   1.144
CAIDI:  93.9 minutes

Anchors Away Upgrades to steam system built by Con Edison.

Ramapo Transformers. O&R replaced six older transformers with two state-of-the-art transformers.

Gas Main Replacement

In 2021, Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. (CECONY) increased its distribution main replacement goal from 90 miles to 101 miles to make up for the impacts of the pandemic in 2020 that had required CECONY to reduce the 2020 goal by a corresponding amount. CECONY exceeded this goal by replacing 105 miles of cast iron and unprotected steel gas mains. In the last five years, CECONY has replaced 448 miles of such mains. Besides upgrades to the distribution system, CECONY continues to replace and upgrade the transmission system to maintain system reliability and to incorporate new requirements established by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration in 2019.

In 2021, Orange & Rockland (O&R) replaced 22 miles of leak-prone pipe. This replacement level met O&R’s commitment to the New York State Public Service Commission. O&R also met its goal of replacing at least 66 miles over the past three years.