N@N

Frigid Temps Help Set New Gas and Electric Records

^{Published on 2010-01-07 09:10:11 - Market Wire}
 

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - January 7, 2010) - The current cold spell has led to new natural gas and electric usage records in Con Edison's service area.

This past Sunday, January 3, 2010, Con Edison set all-time daily and hourly records for natural gas use by residential and business customers. The company set a new daily record on January 3 by delivering 967,908 dekatherms of natural gas to its distribution customers, and a new hourly record at 11 a.m. by delivering 45,953 dekatherms through the distribution system. These amounts broke the previous highest daily delivery of 957,879 dekatherms on December 29, 2009, and the previous highest hourly delivery of 45,505 dekatherms on January 17, 2000 at 9 a.m.

In addition, when including the delivery of natural gas to electric and steam generation facilities, the company established a new daily delivery record of 1.3 million dekatherms on December 29, 2009.

With electric delivery, Con Edison set a new Sunday winter electric peak record on January 3 at 7 p.m., delivering 7,951 megawatts (MW), breaking the previous Sunday winter peak of 7,774 MW on January 23, 2005 at 7 pm. A megawatt is enough electricity to power approximately 1,000 homes. Con Edison maintains approximately 94,000 miles of underground electric cable and 34,000 miles of overhead cable.

Con Edison distributes natural gas to 1.1 million customers in Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, and Westchester County. The company has nearly 4,300 miles of gas mains and 377,000 service pipes transporting an average of about 225 billion cubic feet of natural gas a year. One dekatherm equals approximately 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas.

Homeowners can learn how to save on heating costs by checking a new video on Con Edison's Web site ([ www.coned.com/videos ]), where company veteran Fred Simms offers some simple savings tips. Customers can also follow these simple tips to save energy and money without sacrificing comfort:

• Replace your furnace's air filter before the heating season begins. A dirty filter will reduce air flow, which makes the system work harder to deliver air to the registers.
• Make sure furniture or drapes are not blocking the hot air flow from registers or the heat from radiators
• If your furnace or boiler is more than 15 years old, consider replacing it with new, energy efficient equipment to help save energy.
• Turn down your thermostat when you're asleep or away. A programmable thermostat with temperature and time settings can save on energy costs.
• To save on hot water, set the hot water temperature at the "normal" setting -- no higher than 120 degrees F. This can cut water heating costs by 10 percent. Wrapping your water heater with insulation can save even more on water heating costs.
• Place insulation on the hot water pipe that carries the heated water from the water heater -- especially in cold basements or closet.
• Close doors and isolate unused rooms in your home to reduce the overall space heated.
• Use caulking and weather stripping around doors and windows to prevent heat from escaping and cold air from entering.

Con Edison is a subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc. (NYSE: [ ED ]), one of the nation's largest investor-owned energy companies, with approximately $14 billion in annual revenues and $34 billion in assets. The utility provides electric, gas and steam service to more than 3 million customers in New York City and Westchester County, New York. For additional financial, operations and customer service information, visit Con Edison's Web site at [ www.conEd.com ].