NEW YORK, NY — (Marketwire) — 07/26/11 — Con Edison–s New York customers used a terawatt hour — or 1 trillion watt hours of electricity — during the recent four-day heat wave that roasted the metropolitan area.
That–s a lot of juice. In fact, it–s about the amount of electricity Vermont uses in two months.
The company said usage would have soared even higher if not for customers who responded to calls for conservation or who have taken advantage of Con Edison–s energy-efficiency programs.
“We asked our customers to help us out by using energy wisely and they came through for us in a big way,” said Craig Ivey, the president of Con Edison. “On behalf of the 14,000 men and women of Con Edison, I thank our customers for their conservation efforts and the patience they showed as we restored the scattered outages.”
Demand response programs, which pay large customers to cut back on power usage during heat waves, were credited with reducing peak demand by approximately 500 megawatts on Thursday and Friday.
The company set several other records during the blistering heat wave, including:
Con Edison–s overall electric use peaked at 13,189 megawatts at 4 p.m. last Friday, eclipsing the all-time record of 13,141 megawatts set at 5 p.m. August 2, 2006.
The company also posted a new peak electric usage record for a weekend day at 3 p.m. on Saturday, when the peak reached 11,533 megawatts, breaking the previous weekend-high mark 11,209 megawatts set at 5 p.m. on July 24, 2010.
Company crews worked around the clock to restore service to customers in New York City and Westchester County who were affected by scattered outages starting last Thursday, the day the heat wave began. On Saturday, the company had more than 400 crews and 800 workers in the sweltering streets making repairs.
Con Edison is a subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc. (NYSE: ED), one of the nation–s largest investor-owned energy companies, with approximately $13 billion in annual revenues and $36 billion in assets. The utility provides electric, gas and steam service to more than three million customers in New York City and Westchester County, New York.
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