New year, higher Con Ed bills.
The state Public Service Commission on Thursday approved increases for Con Ed customers in New York, amounting to increases of about 9% for electric and about 6% for gas over three years.
That amounts to about $4 per month more on the average New York City resident’s electric bill. The typical gas bill will increase between about $5 to $19 monthly. The rate hikes will go into effect immediately.
The new rates, typically determined every three years, will impact the bills of Con Ed’s 3.7 million electric customers and 1.1 million gas customers in New York City and Westchester County.
“What the order represents today is a reaction to the world in which we live in, one that is characterized by increasing costs that are far beyond the cost of energy alone, food, housing and inflation are increasing at a rate far faster than wages,” said PSC Chair Rory Christian, noting the outcome was the result of “managing these pressures.”
The utility company proposed raising customers’ bills last year, sparking rebukes from Gov. Kathy Hochul and other elected officials. The rate hike is about 87% less than what Con Ed had initially floated: increases of over 11% for electric customers and more than 13% for gas customers.
Increased property taxes were a key driver of the higher electric bills, as well as investments in the physical system that transports power. The hikes will also pay for programs related to energy efficiency, affordability, information technology, adopting electric heat pumps and replacing gas leaks.
The rate increase does not include the power itself, which Con Ed sells at cost. The company is permitted to make a financial return on investments to the distribution system. The rates also allow Con Ed to make about a 9.4% return on investment, according to the order.
Con Ed must maintain the wires, pipelines and substations that help bring power from generators to homes. The aging grid in New York also needs updates to guard against the effects of climate change and to be able to meet growing demand for power.
Under the agreement approved Thursday, Con Ed will be required to take other measures moving forward to better serve its customers and be more transparent about what customers pay for. For instance, the company will now itemize utility bills to break out the amount attributable to property taxes. It will conduct outreach to landlord groups to discuss non-payment issues that can lead to entire buildings of tenants to be shut off from power, while also providing informational resources to tenants in those situations. And the company will offer outreach materials and documents in the city’s 12 most commonly spoken languages other than English, as state agencies already do.
New York City government, which supported the rate increase, last year praised the expanded language access in the agreement.
The Public Utility Law Project, a consumer-protection group, did not oppose or support the hikes, pointing out in comments submitted to the state the “challenges that remain” due to federal funding cuts and overall uncertainty for programs that help low-income customers pay bills. PULP noted that the budgets of many households are already stretched thin.
Nearly 414,000 Con Ed customers are at least 60 days behind on bills, amounting to over $871 million, according to data submitted by the utility through December.
The most recent change in rates is lower than in previous years. In 2023, the PSC approved a rate increase of about 12% over three years for Con Ed’s electric customers. Previously, in 2020, state regulators greenlit a Con Ed rate hike of about 13% over three years.
In November, when then-Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani met with President Donald Trump, the two men talked about the cost of Con Ed bills.
“We have to get Con Edison to start lowering rates,” Trump said.
“Absolutely,” Mamdani replied.
Department of Public Service staffers noted the Mamdani administration did not file anything to them since the new mayor took office; official input from City Hall on the case had come from the previous administration of Mayor Eric Adams.
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