Con Edison Offers New Ways to Meet Growing Natural Gas Customer Needs
October 03 2017 - 10:23AM
Con Edison has filed innovative proposals to better manage natural
gas use and to help meet the growing heating needs of its
customers, including doubling the size of the program that pays
building owners for conservation measures.
The proposals would put New Yorkers on a path toward a cleaner
energy future, with reductions in carbon emissions and more
renewable energy options that achieve goals in both the short term
and potentially through 2050. (Read the filing with the New York
State Public Commission.)
Bold innovation to more efficiently manage natural gas usage in
New York City and Westchester County is needed because construction
of new natural gas pipelines is not keeping pace with growing
demand.
“We’re seeing strong growth in the need for natural gas in our
service area, both from new building construction and the phase out
of oil as a heating fuel,” said Marc Huestis, senior vice president
of Gas Operations for Con Edison. “While new gas transmission
pipelines and other infrastructure may be needed in the next
several years, we’ve submitted this proposal to advance more gas
efficiency programs and partner with customers and other
third-party businesses to achieve reductions in natural gas usage,
especially on the coldest peak winter days. We are committed
to promoting gas efficiency and other innovative clean energy
solutions in support of long term New York City and New York State
clean energy goals.”
Since 2011, natural gas usage on the coldest winter days in Con
Edison’s service territory has grown by more than 30 percent, and
is expected to grow an additional 20 percent in the next 20 years.
The company forecasts a shortfall in existing pipeline capacity by
2023, limiting the ability to meet the growing customer
demand.
Called “Smart Solutions for Natural Gas Customers,” the
company’s proposed program would encourage cost-effective solutions
by:
- Doubling from $14.5 million to $29 million per year the
incentives available to customers for programs that conserve gas
usage. This would double the annual savings and peak demand
reduction target from 279,000 dekatherms/year and 6,000
dekatherms/day, respectively, to 560,000 dekatherms/year and 12,000
dekatherms/day.
- Creating new gas usage reduction programs that would be
employed on the coldest winter days, modeled after Con Edison’s
successful efforts to reduce electric demand during peak summer
demand days.
- Developing an innovation program for renewable alternatives to
natural gas heating, including efficient electric heating
systems.
- Soliciting the energy marketplace for cost-effective
alternatives to pipeline capacity to identify if customers’ heating
needs can be met cost effectively with non-pipeline resources.
Thousands of Con Edison’s customers are transitioning to natural
gas because community clean heat programs have required customers
to switch from residual heating oil to cleaner heating fuels like
natural gas. The flexibility, environmental performance and high
reliability of natural gas have also made the fuel attractive to
many customers replacing existing heating systems or constructing
new buildings.
Growth in natural gas use has brought significant environmental
and human health benefits to the region by reducing the use of more
expensive and polluting fuels, especially residual oil. In
the past five years (2011-2016), Con Edison converted 6,500 large
buildings in New York City from oil to natural gas.
The conversions have dramatically reduced emissions of sulfur
dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, fine particulate matter, nickel, and
greenhouse gases. Fine particulate matter emissions, for example,
have been reduced by more than 500 tons on an annualized basis,
equivalent to eliminating the particulate emissions from 1.6
million cars.
To maintain and extend these environmental gains, Con Edison
will need additional pipeline capacity or an alternative means to
balance supply and customer demand on its system. All
pipeline capacity coming into the company’s service territory is
contracted, and there are no projects underway that would provide
additional capacity to serve the company’s customers.
The company has considered multiple proposals to increase the
pipeline capacity for its customers, and continues to do so.
Recently proposed pipeline projects, however, have stalled due to a
failure to secure permits needed prior to construction. As a
result the company is taking steps to explore all options to meets
its customers’ needs.
The steps include early activities to bring more pipeline
capacity to the area and, through greater conservation, reducing
the size of the pipeline that is needed. If conservation
efforts and innovative alternatives for heating are successful and
cost-effective, the company could avoid the pipeline project, but
because of the large shortfall in capacity, it will be difficult to
meet growing customer needs solely through conservation.
Today’s proposal would help the company continue to reliably
meet the heating needs of its customers. The programs Con Edison
proposes are intended to help the company avoid having to institute
moratoriums on the interconnection of new customers to its natural
gas system. Moratoriums would increase consumer costs and forego
opportunities to achieve near-term environmental benefits by moving
customers to cleaner heating fuels.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available
at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b5637171-51b6-4f1b-a7f2-71cb139bb7f0
Consolidated Edison, Inc. (NYSE:ED) is one of the nation's
largest investor-owned energy companies, with approximately $12
billion in annual revenues and $49 billion in assets. The
company provides a wide range of energy-related products and
services to its customers through its two regulated utility
subsidiaries, Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc., and
Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc., and its two unregulated
subsidiaries, Con Edison Clean Energy Businesses, Inc. and Con
Edison Transmission, Inc.
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