Con Edison 

This article is about the utility company in New York. For ComEd in Illinois, see Commonwealth Edison.
Consolidated Edison Company
Type Invention/Energy company
Founded 1823
Headquarters United States
Key people Kevin Burke (CEO)
Industry Energy industry
Services Electricity
Website www.coned.com

Consolidated Edison, Inc. NYSE: ED is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the United States, with approximately $13 billion in annual revenues and $30 billion in assets. The company provides a wide range of energy-related products and services to its customers through the following subsidiaries: Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc., a regulated utility providing electric, gas, and steam service in New York City and Westchester County, New York; Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc., a regulated utility serving customers in a 1,350-square-mile (3,500 km2) area in southeastern New York and adjacent sections of northern New Jersey and northeastern Pennsylvania; Con Edison Solutions, a retail energy supply and services company; Con Edison Energy, a wholesale energy supply company; and Con Edison Development, a company that owns and operates generating plants and participates in other infrastructure projects.

Con Edison produces 30 billion pounds of steam each year through its seven cogeneration plants (which boil water to 1,000°F (538°C) before pumping it to hundreds of buildings in Manhattan below 96th Street -- the biggest steam system in the world.1

Contents

Company history

In 1823, Con Edison’s earliest corporate entity, the New York Gas Light Company, was founded by a consortium of New York City investors. In 1824 New York Gas Light was listed on the New York Stock Exchange, it has the record for being the longest listed stock on the NYSE.

In 1884, six gas companies combined into the Consolidated Gas Company. The New York Steam Company began providing service in lower Manhattan in 1882. Today, Con Edison operates the largest commercial steam system in the world, providing steam service to nearly 1,600 commercial and residential establishments in Manhattan from the Battery to 96th Street.2

Con Edison’s electric business also dates back to 1882, when Thomas Edison’s Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York began supplying electricity to 59 customers in a square-mile area in lower Manhattan. After the “War of Currents”, there were more than 30 companies generating and distributing electricity in New York City and Westchester County. But by 1920 there were far fewer, and the New York Edison Company (then part of Consolidated Gas) was clearly the leader.

In 1936, with electric sales far outstripping gas sales, the company incorporated and the name was changed to Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. The years that followed brought further amalgamations as Consolidated Edison acquired or merged with more than a dozen companies between 1936 and 1960. Con Edison today is the result of acquisitions, dissolutions and mergers of more than 170 individual electric, gas and steam companies.

On January 1, 1998, following the deregulation of the utility industry in New York state, a holding company, Consolidated Edison, Inc., was formed. It is one of the nation’s largest investor-owned energy companies, with approximately $13 billion in annual revenues and $30 billion in assets. The company provides a wide range of energy-related products and services to its customers through two regulated utility subsidiaries and three competitive energy businesses. Con Edison (NYSE: ED), under a number of different corporate names, remains the longest continuously traded stock on the New York Stock Exchange. Its largest subsidiary, Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. provides electric, gas and steam service to more than 3 million customers in New York City and Westchester County, New York, an area of 660 square miles (1,700 km2) with a population of nearly 9 million.

Major accidents

Other information

A former Con Edison building on 48th Street in Manhattan was converted first into the studio for the television game show Let's Make a Deal, and later into a recording studio called “The Power Station” because of its Edison history. In 1996, the studio was renamed Avatar Studios.

The 93,000 miles (150,000 km) of underground cable in the Con Edison system could wrap around the Earth 3.6 times. Nearly 36,000 miles (58,000 km) of overhead electric wires complement the underground system -- enough cable to stretch between New York and Los Angeles 13 times.6

The Con Edison gas system has nearly 7,200 miles (11,600 km) of pipes – if laid end to end, long enough to reach Paris and back to New York City. The average volume of gas that travels through Con Edison’s gas system annually could fill the Empire State Building nearly 6,100 times.7

Con Edison operates the largest district steam system in the world. Steam traveling through the system is used to heat and cool some of New York’s most famous addresses, including the United Nations complex, the Empire State Building, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.8

In 2005, electric revenues accounted for 64.9% of consolidated sales (68.2% in 2004); gas revenues 15.9% (15.4%); non-utility revenues 13.6%(10.8%); and steam revenues 5.5% (5.6%).

Corporate leadership

See also

References

  1. ^ Bevelhymer, Carl. "Steam". Gotham Gazette. Retrieved on 2008-01-09. "When John Velez, co-owner of Sutton Cleaners, arrives at work at 7 a.m. on Manhattan's East Side, he opens a steam valve in the back of his shop. "When I come into the shop in the morning, it's one, two, three," he says, "and you're up and running in less than a minute.""
  2. ^ "'A Tale of Two Cities - New York' - The New York City Steam System". International District Energy Association. Retrieved on 2008-01-09. "With district steam service commencing in 1882, Con Edison owns and operates the largest downtown steam system in the world, serving over 1600 buildings with steam supplied from multiple combined heat and power facilities with total capacity of 21,755 (Mlbs/hr) and 627 MW. In 1999, Con Ed completed the ten-year Steam Enhancement program investing over $200 million in system upgrades and maintenance."
  3. ^ Pitt, David E (1989-08-24). "Evacuation For Asbestos Near Blast Site", The New York Times. Retrieved on 9 January 2008. "More than 200 residents of a Gramercy Park apartment building that was heavily damaged in a steam-pipe explosion over the weekend were ordered from their homes last night after tests showed what a Consolidated Edison official called "extremely high" levels of asbestos fibers throughout the building." 
  4. ^ Chan, Sewell (2006-03-04). "Con Ed Finds 1,214 Stray Voltage Sites in One Year", The New York Times. Retrieved on 9 January 2008. "Consolidated Edison, responding to testing requirements imposed after a woman was electrocuted while walking her dog in the East Village in 2004, found 1,214 instances of stray voltage during a yearlong examination of electrical equipment on city streets, officials disclosed at a City Council hearing yesterday." 
  5. ^ "STEAM REPORT: BUBBLE COLLAPSE WATERHAMMER CAUSED LEXINGTON AVENUE INCIDENT". Con Edison. Retrieved on 2008-01-09. "The steam pipe rupture at Lexington Avenue and East 41 Street on July 18 was caused by a bubble-collapse water hammer that generated a momentary force against the pipe's wall that was more than seven times greater than the pipe's normal operating pressure, according to reports issued today by two independent experts commissioned by Con Edison. The pipe itself was found to be in good condition and did not contribute to the event."
  6. ^ "Electric System". Con Edison. Retrieved on 2008-01-09. "Con Edison operates one of the most complex electric power systems in the world. It is also the world's most reliable."
  7. ^ "Gas System". Con Edison. Retrieved on 2008-01-09. "Con Edison distributes natural gas to 1.1 million customers in Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, and Westchester County, making us one of the larger gas distribution companies in the United States."
  8. ^ "Steam System". Con Edison. Retrieved on 2008-01-09. "The New York Steam Company began providing service in lower Manhattan in 1882. Today, Con Edison operates the largest steam system in the world. The system contains approximately 105 miles (169 km) of mains and service pipes and 3,000 steam manholes. Steam is provided from seven Con Edison steam-generating plants, five in Manhattan, one in Queens, and one in Brooklyn, along with receiving steam under contract from a steam plant at the Brooklyn Navy Yard."

External links