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ConEd provides electric, steam, and gas service to 676,000 customers in Man
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It's easy to take for granted all that goes into electric, steam, and gas service. Whether it's flipping a light switch, turning on the hot water for your morning shower, or setting the oven for dinner, most of us expect everything to work just fine. These actions feel as natural as blinking; so natural that we often don't think about them at all.
In New York City in particular, they are excluded from the thoughts of millions for one primary reason: Con Edison is completely preoccupied with them, taking care so customers don't have to.
Con Ed is the city's energy company, providing electric, steam, and gas service to 676,000 customers in Manhattan alone. It is the nation's largest investor-owned energy company, with about $10 billion in annual revenues. It also provides the nation's most reliable service -- in fact, only a small fraction of its customers will experience an outage that's not emergency related in their lifetimes.
More remarkable still is how the company meets both the high demands and standards of this power-hungry city. Thanks to ever-increasing usage to power air conditioners, computers, printers, phone chargers, and other equipment, electrical demand has grown by nearly 20 percent over the past 10 years. That amounts to 11,315 megawatts in New York City alone, with one megawatt able to power approximately 1,000 homes.
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| Insulating epoxy coats this Con Ed steam manhole cover |
Customers get their energy from the ground. Or at least, underground, from utility mains and ducts installed many decades ago by forward-thinking companies such as New York Gas Light Company (founded 1823) and Edison Electric Illuminating Company (founded 1880 by Thomas Edison, who was working from an office on Pearl Street).
Since 1999, when work on the Wall Street Area Water Main began, 300-plus blocks of those buried ducts already have been or are being upgraded, though they now are largely part of downtown's recovery from 9/11. Con Ed's crews work closely with city agencies like the Department of Design and Construction and the Department of Transportation to ensure continual service today, as well as for years to come.
The practical matters that go into Con Ed's work are masterminded by people like Donald Soldiviero, a public-improvement engineer who's dedicated 35 years to the company, and, essentially, to the city.
Soldiviero is part of the Con Ed team rebuilding Lower Manhattan's utilities, and he knows first hand the work that goes into it. Right off the bat, and after thorough planning with other service providers, a capital reconstruction of one of downtown's narrow streets begins with crews carefully digging out utility lines with shovels, rather than an engine-powered backhoe. This time-consuming process is followed by the physical assessment of conduits so that work can be expedited with appropriate specialty crews.
"It's not until you dig up the street that you find out what's really there," said David Gmach, Con Ed's director of Manhattan Public Affairs. "The work you initially thought you had to get done is not necessarily what needs to happen."
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| Yellow gas ducts are the house connection to a building on Cedar Street |
Because many of the underground utilities in Lower Manhattan were installed and replaced piecemeal throughout the 20th century, they are often uncovered as complex webs of new and old ducts sandwiched between subway tubes and the roadway.
For example, along William Street, the first and longest section of the water main replacement project, the density of utilities required several years of meticulous coordination, excavation, and restoration. The result is a street that now houses new and upgraded water, sewer, gas, electric, steam, and telecommunication lines, organized to run no higher than nine inches from the street surface.
"On William Street, I think we were pretty successful at it, but it was a long process," said Soldiviero. "All of our utilities were replaced, and now we have a state-of-the-art system, built to 2005 specifications that tie into nearby work, and a nice new road."
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| Many utility lines filled Cedar when it was first excavated in June 2005 |
Soldiviero now has turned his attention to similar reconstructions on adjacent streets like Ann, Wall, and Cedar. Looking into an opened street such as Cedar (between William and Pearl) reveals the gamut of utilities that keep thousands of Financial District companies operating -- from pre-cast concrete ducts for electric cables and house connections for neighboring buildings to coated, corrosion-resistant iron conduits for gas and steam and manholes for future access.
"The difficult thing about Lower Manhattan is that everything has to be done custom," said Pat Richardi, a Con Ed community affairs spokesperson. In addition to the work itself, she notes, the company also is obliged to maintain service with few or no disruptions, which can be particularly challenging during the extreme weather of summer and winter when demands are highest.
However, Con Ed has mastered steady performance by building in redundancies across service areas, logging work in its systems for efficient future upgrades and keeping comprehensive contingency plans ready.
James Coffin, chief construction director for Manhattan, sums up Con Ed's work by pointing out the company's continuity and diligence, which explains its ubiquity at downtown work sites. "When somebody starts digging a hole, we're there with them," he said.
Click here to read part one, Behind the Power of Lower Manhattan, of this two-part article about Con Edison's service in Lower Manhattan.
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