Con Ed seeks to jolt rates higher

Queens residents and business owners will be reaching deeper into their pockets if Con Ed has its way.
Less than two months after the State’s Public Service Commission (PSC) approved a 4.7 percent or $450 million rate hike for the utility, Con Ed recently submitted its rate requests for 2009, and the company is seeking even larger increases this year.
“How many times can you say outrage when it comes to Con Ed,” said City Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr., who represents Astoria. “It’s like d/j vu all over again.”
Con Ed executives recently submitted two proposals to the PSC - one for an an increase in 2009 and another three-year rate increase plan.
The first proposal asks for $654 million in additional electric delivery revenues resulting in a 5.8 percent average increase in total customer bills.
Meanwhile, the second proposal, which Con Ed prefers, is a three-year plan that would raise annual revenues by $557 million, increasing total bills by 4.9 percent in each of the next three years.
Under this proposal, each year a typical residential customer paying $78.90 per month would see an increase of $5.38 or about a 6.8 percent rise while a typical business paying $2,338 per month would see an increase of $101, or 4.3 percent.
Con Ed officials cited the increased cost of oil and gas, more capital projects including substations and transformers and increased demand-reduction and energy-efficiency programs as some reasons for the proposed rate increase.
“We are working to help our customers manage their power usage, reducing energy costs in the long term and improving the environment. Our rate application reflects our commitment to continue to invest in the long-term future of New York and to maintain a reliable delivery infrastructure,” Con Ed CEO Kevin Burke said in a statement.
However, many local elected officials said the company’s logic was not acceptable.
“I find it difficult to understand that Con Ed allowed this system to deteriorate so much that now the cost to bring the system up to par is astronomical… compounded by today’s cost of copper and steel,” said Queens Borough President Helen Marshall.
Meanwhile, Queens Assemblymember Michael Gianaris, who represents portions of western Queens that went 10 days without power during the summer of 2006, renewed his call to dismantle the monopoly Con Ed has on electricity
“If this is the type of ‘service’ we can expect from this monopoly, it is obvious we must rethink our entire approach to electricity transmission in New York and eliminate Con Edison as we know it,” Gianaris said. “New Yorkers are tired of paying more to an unaccountable monopoly, only to learn that their hard-earned money is wasted on higher executive salaries and investor dividends.”
The PSC has until the first quarter of 2009 to approve or decline a rate hike for Con Ed.