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Bronx CustomersA water main break is affecting gas service for some in the area. Our crews are working on restoration. For more information, call 1-800-75-CONED or visit 3211 Boston Road.

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Our Climate Change Resiliency Plan

    Con Edison’s strategies to upgrade infrastructure and make our energy systems more resilient against an ever-changing climate.

    Read the 2025 Resilience Plan Summary (PDF)
    Storm clouds gathering over Manhattan.

    We have a proud legacy of learning and building back stronger following extreme weather events. In recent years, we’ve adopted a more forward-looking strategy for system resiliency to ensure safe, reliable, and resilient energy through the 21st century and beyond.

    What does this mean for you? Fewer power outages when storms strike and less damage to our equipment. So if the lights do go out, we can make repairs faster and get you back up and running sooner.

    In February 2025, we released a new Climate Change Resilience Plan (CCRP). This plan is a comprehensive long-term roadmap of adaptation measures for each climate vulnerability and the steps we plan to take to address these hazards.

    Read the CCRP Summary and CCRP (Full Report and Appendices)

    Our Climate Change Studies 

    In 2019, we collaborated with Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory to conduct a landmark Climate Change Vulnerability Study (CCVS)—an extensive review of our infrastructure, design specifications, procedures, and the upgrades we needed to make to protect our equipment and customers. Gaining a better understanding of projected climate change across our service area has helped us better identify system vulnerabilities, prioritize investments, and strengthen our electric, gas, and steam infrastructure.

    Read the 2019 CCVS Summary, 2019 CCVS (Full Report), and 2019 CCVS Appendices.

    In late 2020, we built on the 2019 CCVS findings by developing a formal Climate Change Implementation Plan (CCIP), which established the company’s processes for governance and strategic management of our resilience efforts. This includes managing climate risk and reviewing our planning, engineering, operations, and emergency response practices to adapt to climate change.

    In September 2023, we published an updated CCVS to broaden our understanding of the climate change risks that could affect our infrastructure and customers. This updated study used the latest climate projections provided by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority in partnership with Columbia University and supplemented with data by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Our climate resilience approach is to prevent, mitigate, and respond to future hazards and allows us to think strategically and prioritize investments over the next 5, 10, and 20 years. It is the basis for our Resilience Plan.

     

    Read the 2023 CCVS Summary and 2023 CCVS (Full Report).

    Our Climate Resilience Strategy

    Changing Practices


    • In 2020, we developed the Climate Change Implementation Plan (CCIP), to systematically incorporate climate change into planning, design, operations, and emergency response practices. We also created an internal Climate Change Planning and Design Guideline to refine the tools, methods, and approaches for incorporating resilience and adaptation into our service.                                            
    • In 2020, we established a climate change governance structure for managing climate risk and resilience and incorporating climate change into existing processes and practices. This structure helps Con Edison sustain climate change adaptation efforts while providing guidance, support, and oversight
    • In 2023, we released our updated Climate Change Vulnerability Study and followed up with a Climate Change Resilience Plan to create an integrated business strategy using climate resilience-driven investments. We continually review emerging climate threats and will update these reports every five years.

    Investing in Adaptation


    We have spent more than $1 billion on storm hardening initiatives since 2012. This has helped us avoid more than 1.2 million customer interruptions to date.


    • In 2013, we developed the Post-Sandy Enhancement Plan to prepare for increasingly destructive storms. This plan focused on fortifying our energy systems, enhancing storm planning and restoration times, and improving the flow of information to customers and stakeholders.
    • Making sure we have extra resources when our customers need us most. Nearly 1,000 additional contractors from all over the country have pledged to help us restore power after major events. We’ve also secured additional heavy equipment for the mutual aid crews to get them to your neighborhood faster than ever.
    • In 2020, we allocated $13 million for tree trimming and $1.5 million for hazardous tree removal to prevent trees from interfering with our overhead power lines. We expect to invest an additional $1.2 million to remove trees to protect our equipment and prevent outages.

    Improving Our Response


    • We have invested more than $30 million in innovative technology in the last five years to help customers prepare for severe weather, report service problems, and stay informed during emergencies. During Tropical Storm Isaias—the second most damaging storm in company history, with more than 300,000 outages—emails, texting, and social media helped us communicate with customers more efficiently than ever before. We also received 17,000 damage reports through our mobile app from employees and contractors, which helped us enhance site safety and reduce outage times.
    • We incorporated our smart meters to give us near-real-time visibility into customer outages so we could mount a more efficient storm response. During Isaias, smart meters helped us avoid nearly 4,000 truck dispatches, allowing us to send our resources to the areas that needed them most.
      
      

    Fortifying Our Future

    Our work to make our systems more resilient to the effects of climate change is an ongoing and evolving process. Using the findings from the latest climate studies and projections, we continue to maintain a safe working environment, provide support for our customers and communities, and sustain operational excellence in the face of climate change.


    • Continue to take proactive steps to increase the resilience of our energy infrastructure by incorporating climate-change adaptation measures, tools and approaches into engineering and planning.
    • Construct new assets and enhance existing infrastructure to better withstand the physical impacts of climate change.
    • Implement and measure the benefits of our resilience investments while maintaining a safe and resilient electric grid.
     
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