Con Edison Reports Clean Energy Progress for First Quarter 2024
Con Edison and its customers continue to make progress in the transition to a clean energy future, according to the first quarter (Q1) update for 2024 released this week by the company. Among the highlights, in the last year, Con Edison customers have increased their rooftop solar capacity by 18 percent, adding 92 megawatts.
Clean Energy Commitment
Con Edison notes that the company's major infrastructure projects are on track to support New York’s transition to clean energy. They include the Brooklyn Clean Energy Hub, Reliable Clean City - Idlewild Substation, Goethals to Fox Hills and Gowanus to Greenwood projects. Also included is the interconnection to bring offshore wind energy from the Empire Wind project.
The company continues to reduce methane emissions and replaced or retired 17 miles of natural gas pipeline in Q1. It also has fully electrified three customers’ buildings in order to decommission two gas mains.
Con Edison reports that it continues to protect energy affordability for low-income customers. This year it has applied $68 million in electric discounts and $13 million in gas discounts for its most vulnerable customers.
Solar Generation
Con Edison customers are capturing the sun’s energy at a record pace. In just a year, customers added 92 MW of solar capacity.
More than 67,000 solar projects now dot the rooftops of homes, supermarkets, office buildings, parking structures and yards with the capacity to produce 600.5 MW of power. That’s an impressive amount of energy considering that one of the nation’s newest solar energy producers with nearly 2 million solar panels covering 4,600 acres has an 875 MW capacity.
In Q1, Queens customers lead the way with 22,874 installed solar projects. Staten Island followed with 13,096 projects installed.
Westchester County customers topped solar generation capacity with 161.5 MW over Queens’ 157.3 MW. Staten Islanders have installed 117.3 MW of capacity.
Battery Storage
Westchester customers lead the region with 559 of the 619 battery storage projects with the capacity to store 14 MW. In total, Con Edison customers installed 46.8 MW of storage capacity. Con Edison has also installed 9.5 MW of utility-owned storage for a total storage capacity of 55.3 MW.
For customers with low incomes thinking of adding solar and/or battery storage, the company note that its Distributed Energy Resources Make Ready program offers incentives to cover all, or a portion of, utility-side upgrade costs for installing solar and/or an energy storage system.
Electric Vehicles & Charging
Con Edison notes that its PowerReady program has provided incentives for more than 7,500 vehicle charge plugs since it began in 2020.
Of the charging plugs installed, 2,700 EV chargers are in disadvantaged communities and 1,700 are publicly accessible.
Con Edison has completed 59 fleet site assessments through this quarter to support customers’ transition to electric vehicles.
More than one quarter of the company’s internal combustion engine light-duty vehicle fleet has been replaced with electric vehicles, reducing greenhouse gas emissions through the conversion of 480 cars from gas to electric. The company also introduced its first fully electric Class 8 tractor, the Freightliner eCascadia, into its fleet.
Clean Heat
Con Edison’s Clean Heat program offers incentives for customers who replace their fossil-fuel powered HVAC systems and water heaters with heat pumps. Heat pumps move energy from the air or stored in the earth to provide carbon-free heating and cooling.
In the first quarter of 2024, the company supported 1,376 heat pump installations with a $14 million investment on clean heat programs to support customer adoption.
Source: Con Edison
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