Change in Brooklyn and Queens: How New York?s Reforming the Energy Vision Program and Con Edison Are Reshaping Electric Distribution Planning

Journal Article · Wed Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 2017 · IEEE Power & Energy Magazine

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/MPE.2016.2639179· OSTI ID:1353316

Coddington, Michael; Sciano, Damian; Fuller, Jason

In response to this tremendous growth in both population and electricity demand, Con Edison estimates that its cost to expand the “traditional” Brooklyn-Queens grid will be in the neighborhood of US$1.2 billion—a relatively high number, even for New York City and Con Edison. The complexity of the city’s underground electrical system along with the difficulties of construction in a highly congested urban environment with infrastructure both above and below ground mean that the costs for transmission, substations, and secondary networks are significantly higher than those of a typical electric utility. The New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) is in the process revising its approach to acquiring and serving energy throughout the state of New York, and traditional expansion for this rather costly project was not likely to be approved. Instead, the PSC asked Con Edison to evaluate numerous alternatives. The PSC and Con Edison are now considering and adopting strategies that include renewable energy generation, demand response (DR), battery energy storage systems, fuel-cell distributed generation, combined heat and power, volt-volt ampere reactive (VAR) optimization (VVO), and a host of other innovative solutions that would both reduce electricity demand and transform how and when Con Edison’s consumers use electricity.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 1353316
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-123263
• Journal Information: IEEE Power & Energy Magazine, Journal Name: IEEE Power & Energy Magazine Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 15; ISSN 1540-7977
• Publisher: IEEE
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English