Power of the People

Con Edison customers have completed more than 33,000 solar installation projects with the capacity to produce 300 megawatts (MW) of renewable power—putting our customers on par with many of the largest utility-scale solar facilities in the United States and around the world.

The solar panels Con Edison customers have installed avoided the CO2 emissions from 31,362,121 gallons of gasoline used or the greenhouse gas equivalent of taking about 60,000 cars off the road for one year.

To become part of the solar energy power movement customers can begin by clicking here.

Among the five boroughs of New York City, Queens is the solar leader and Staten Island is second. In Queens,10,400 projects have been completed with the capacity to produce more than 77 MW of electricity. Staten Island customers have completed over 8,000 solar projects with the capacity to produce more than 67 MW.

In Westchester County, customers have installed more than 7,000 solar arrays that can produce up to 78 MW of power.

“New Yorkers recognize that putting solar panels on their roofs helps ensure a clean energy future for our city, state and nation and is a great way to lower energy bills,” said Joe White, Con Edison’s distributed generation ombudsman. “Con Edison supports the New York City and State environmental goals and is working with customers to interconnect clean, renewable solar power and other renewables to run their homes and businesses.”

Con Edison customers have installed residential systems ranging from a single kilowatt to arrays up to 5 MW on large commercial buildings.

A typical residential customer with a 6-kilowatt solar array can generate enough power to provide up to $700 in annual electric savings, helping reduce a bill by more than 60 percent.

Con Edison continues to make it faster, easier, and less expensive for customers to harness the energy of the sun by streamlining the interconnection process. The interconnection process ensures reliable electric service is maintained for all customers while providing solar customers the ability to send excess power back into the grid and get paid for it.

The company sought and received New York State Public Service Commission approval to shorten the process for customers with solar projects up to 5 megawatts. Until this year, customers applying to interconnect these projects had to pay for a detailed engineering review that could take up to three months.

This new process has shortened the interconnection timeline for more than 50 projects that have the combined capacity to produce more than 5 megawatts of energy if they are all completed.

Con Edison’s efforts to speed the approval process include allowing developers to make payments electronically via Automated Clearing House or wire transfers. The company has also enhanced a software program that streamlines communication and project inquiries between developers, applicants and Con Edison’s Distributed Energy Services Group.

Con Edison also provides customers with information to help them decide whether solar energy is right for them: https://www.coned.com/en/save-money/using-private-generation-energy-sources/solar-energy.

Through its Clean Energy Businesses, Con Edison Inc. is the second largest solar provider in North America. Those businesses have 2,600 MW of renewable (solar and wind) assets in 17 states.

The company also supports utility ownership of large-scale renewable generation in New York State. Utility ownership would be less costly for customers since utilities can finance and operate these projects less expensively than private developers.

Con Edison is a subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc. [NYSE: ED], one of the nation’s largest investor-owned energy companies, with approximately $13 billion in annual revenues and $59 billion in assets. The utility delivers electricity, natural gas and steam to 3.5 million customers in New York City and Westchester County, N.Y. For financial, operations and customer service information, visit conEd.com. For energy efficiency information, visit coned.com/energyefficiency. Also, visit us on Twitter and Facebook.