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Water Management

Water Management

Water Management

Water Use and Conservation

As one of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection’s largest water customers, we are committed to reducing our water consumption. As a result of increasing the efficiency of our steam system and upgrading our water treatment processes, we have decreased our water consumption by more than 15% over the past decade.

Con Edison Steam Operations - DEP Municipal Water Use (billion gallons)

4
3
2
1
2011
0.2
0.9
2.5
2012
0.2
1
2.4
2013
0.2
1
2.6
2014
0.2
1
2.6
2015
0.2
1
2.5
2016
0.3
1
2.3
2017
0.3
1
2.3
2018
0.3
0.6
2.4
2019
0.2
0.9
2.3
2020
0.1
0.6
2
2021
0.1
0.6
2.1
2022
0.1
0.7
2.2
2023
0.1
0.8
1.9
2024
0.1
0.9
2
  • Water Used to Produce Electricity
  • Water Used to Produce Steam
  • Steam Purchased by Customers

 

Figure 21

 
Steam Operations takes the following measures to use water efficiently and economically:

  • Management oversight of water usage.
  • Constant monitoring, tracking, analysis, and adjustments of water use relative to steam production.
  • Implementation of procedures to comply with water use restrictions in response to drought conditions.

Our latest effort to reduce our water use involves integrating Capacitive Electrodialysis Reversal technology (C-EDR) with the reverse osmosis filtration system at our East River Generating Station. After three years of planning, we installed a pilot unit in December 2024 and plan to commission it in 2025. This technology upgrade purifies water that is currently discarded during treatment, allowing it to be reused for steam production. Operational benefits of C-EDR include: 1) higher efficiency; 2) lower wastewater concentrations; and 3) reduced disposal costs.

Water effluent from our steam system is primarily discharged into the Hudson and East Rivers. All our steam plants have a State Pollution Discharge Elimination System (SPDES) permit from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation that allows our facilities to discharge water into these two rivers, subject to meeting designated criteria for each station.

Each steam plant monitors compliance with parameters set by its SPDES permit and reports water sample results to the DEC. We also have incident response and corrective action policies and plans in place to comply with our SPDES permits and promptly report non-compliance with any SPDES permit requirement.

Preventing Spills to Waterways

We are steadfast in our commitment to minimizing the potential for oil releases resulting from the use of dielectric fluid in our equipment or through fuel storage activities. To mitigate risks associated with potential equipment leaks, we employ a spill prevention, control, response, and reporting program.

Our program uses physical controls and technologies to identify and address risks as early as possible, including:

  • Containment structures.
  • Leak detection systems.
  • Oil-filled asset monitoring systems.
  • Facility and asset inspection and repair programs.
  • Contracted land and water remediation resources.

In the event of a spill, our Spill Prevention Countermeasure and Control (SPCC) Plans and Facility Response Plans detail the actions we would take to contain it as quickly as possible. We periodically review, benchmark, and update these plans. In 2024, we completed 93 SPCC inspections and recertified 64 EPA-mandated SPCC plans. Additionally, CECONY performs annual drills targeted at testing and verifying the preparedness of our facilities to respond effectively to an oil spill.

In 2024, we consolidated the following functions under a dedicated Environmental Field Team:

  • Quality assurance reviews of our oil management programs.
  • Oversight of our environmental drills, involving key internal and external stakeholders.
  • Management of our Spill Management Team, a multidisciplinary group trained to respond to significant environmental events.
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