Four Storms in Quick Succession Expose the Flaws in New York City’s Electrical System - WNYC

Good coverage of the challenges utilities face in the future thanks to climate change:

Four Storms in Quick Succession Expose the Flaws in New York City’s Electrical System - WNYC

Bloomberg defends ConEd against Hurricane Sandy criticisms

Critics said the utility should have had better protections against storm damage, but the mayor said he didn’t want to second guess the utility.

BY TINA MOORE / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2012, 

Plenty of New Yorkers are grumbling about ConEd in the wake of rampant power outages that lasted long after Hurricane Sandy, but Mayor Bloomberg isn’t one of them.

He said Friday it’s best utility in America.

"I keep saying this and everybody wants to shoot me for it,” Hizzoner said Friday on his weekly radio show, “but they have done a very good job. And they did not have a lot of damage.”

ConEd was slammed by the storm that overwhelmed its key equipment including a crucial substation on the East River in Manhattan. Critics said the utility should have had better protections but Bloomberg said it’s hard to judge.

“They built a wall around their high-voltage thing — 12 feet. It never comes even remotely close to that. They had 14 feet of water,” he said. “It's easy to second guess. If they'd built it 15 feet and we had 16 feet ...”

The mayor has been a staunch champion of the utility for years, infuriating Queens residents when he rushed to ConEd’s defense during the 2006 Queens blackout.

“If you look at the national statistics, this happens to be virtually the best utility company in the country,” Bloomberg said Friday. “Are they perfect? No. And it's a lot of should have, would have and could have and second guessing but they have done a very good job.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bloomberg-defends-coned-sandy-criticisms-article-1.1211026#ixzz2DoD2epMK

Before Hurricane Sandy, No Advocate For New York's Utility Ratepayers

Matt Sledge

Huffington Post

Posted: 11/28/2012

NEW YORK -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo launched an investigation two weeks ago into utility companies' performance before and after Hurricane Sandy left millions of New Yorkers powerless -- some for weeks.

But one issue that could be crucial to Cuomo's special commission review is why there is no independent voice in New York state to stand up for electricity ratepayers before storms hit.

Last March, Cuomo rolled the state's independent Consumer Protection Board's Utility Intervention Unit into the Department of State. The unit now has a bare-bones staff with no authority to sue on behalf of ordinary customers. The governor's administration also has yet to issue a contract for independent utility watchdog and non-profit the Public Utility Law Project -- despite appropriations by the state legislature.

Across the Hudson, even though its population is a fraction of New York state's, New Jersey has a Division of Rate Counsel with dozens of employees on guard against jacked-up rates and lowballed tree-trimming budgets. It also can take utilities to court if it needs to.

"Right now as it stands, we have a diminished consumer protection representation," said New York Assembly Energy Committee Chair Kevin Cahill. "It's a serious, serious issue."

Utilities are claiming a staggering $1.5 billion in damages from Hurricane Sandy. If companies like Con Edison argue -- as they likely will -- that consumers should be forced to pay for most of that, there is no one with the technical knowledge necessary to find out what is warranted and what is not.

The lack of consumer protection also means that before Sandy, nobody was looking into whether ConEd was spending enough on maintenance and infrastructure investments, aside from the state regulator, the Public Service Commission.

New York's Utility Intervention Unit has just two employees, according to Cahill. And at a hearing earlier this year, when he asked about its jurisdiction since it had been rolled into the Department of State, he said, nobody seemed to know.

The governor's office and the Utility Intervention Unit did not respond to requests for comment.

Gerald Norlander, the executive director of PULP, said the state now appears to belatedly be moving to approve his outfit's contract. But he also sees a need for a strengthened, politically independent state utility intervention body.

"Under Pataki and Spitzer and Paterson and Cuomo -- it's not just Cuomo -- it's withered for 15 years," Norlander said of the unit. "They don't have the structural power and the independence they should have."

Having a voice independent from the regulator is critical, said Paul Flanagan, the litigation manager for the comparatively well-staffed and well-defined Division of Rate Counsel in New Jersey.

"We tend to be more the adversaries of the utilities, more so than the (regulator's) staff," he said.

An independent advocate can look out for customers before a disaster like Sandy strikes. It was the Division of Rate Counsel that filed a request in July with New Jersey's Board of Public Utilities to require one of the state's leading utilities, Jersey Central Power & Light, to explain how it was spending its storm mitigation money.

"As the utilities come in, which some of them already have and some of them will, to look for monies to pay for the storm … we look at the cost of things in particular, so we want to see whether the ratepayers are getting value for the money that is spent," said Flanagan.

Many other states have a similar ratepayers' advocate, usually funded by the utilities themselves in a way that amounts to pennies per consumer per year. There is even a National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates. But New York is missing out.

"One of the problems with the rate-making structure in New York is that utilities can basically submit the bill for their response to storm damage, and it's pretty much passed through to the consumer," said Cahill.

But in many cases, he argued, utilities should have been spending more before the storm, to make outages less likely and shorter. Instead, he said, they have cut back on tree-trimming that can prevent downed lines, upgrading infrastructure, and hiring the lineworkers necessary to keep systems in shape.

"The question from a consumer representation standpoint at the current moment is, should the ratepayers in any way, shape, or form, be saddled with the costs of recovery where those costs could have been avoided with proper preparation?" he asked. "My answer to that is 'no'."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/28/hurricane-sandy-utility-ratepayers_n_2207285.html

New York tells Con Ed to prepare in case Indian Point shuts

Wed Nov 28, 2012 3:02pm EST

* New York governor wants Indian Point shut

* Entergy wants to run reactors for 20 more years

* Indian Point current licenses expire in 2013, 2015

By Scott DiSavino

Nov 28 (Reuters) - New York energy regulators told power companies in New York City to develop plans to keep the lights on in the Big Apple in case the giant Indian Point nuclear power plant, which supplies about a quarter of the city's electricity, is forced to shut down.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo wants the two reactors at Indian Point shut when their operating licenses expire in 2013 and 2015 in part because the nuclear plant is located in the New York metropolitan area, home to some 19 million people.

The governor has said even the most unlikely possibility of an accident is too much in the heavily populated area.

U.S. power company Entergy Corp, which owns Indian Point, says, however, the plant is safe, and the company is seeking to extend the reactors' licenses for another 20 years.

The 2,063-megawatt (MW) Indian Point plant is about 40 miles (60 km) north of Manhattan along the Hudson River.

"Entergy and its employees continuously demonstrate the plants are safely operated, and is committed to safely operating this important facility for many more years to come," Entergy spokesman Jerry Nappi told Reuters Wednesday in an email.

On Tuesday, the state's energy regulator, New York Public Service Commission (NYPSC), directed New York City power company Consolidated Edison Inc to work with the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to develop a contingency plan to address the needs that would arise in the event Indian Point shuts down.

NYPA is a state-owned power generator that supplies electricity to government customers in New York City, including schools, hospitals, government buildings, subways and commuter trains.

"We will comply with the Commission's directive to work with the New York Power Authority to develop a contingency plan addressing the needs that would arise in the event of an Indian Point shutdown," Con Edison told Reuters in an emailed statement.

A shutdown of Indian Point, without sufficient alternatives, would threaten electric system reliability and potentially raise electric market prices, Con Ed said.

Several energy companies have already proposed power plants and transmission lines that could partially replace Indian Point, including units of NRG Energy Inc, Brookfield Asset Management Inc, BP Plc, Calpine Corp , GenOn Energy Inc and Iberdrola SA.

ENTERGY SEEKS NEW LICENSES

To keep the reactors running over the next couple of decades, Entergy filed with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in 2007 to renew the Indian Point licenses.

A decision by the NRC commissioners on the licenses might not happen for years, as agency judges are still holding hearings on challenges to the plant's continued operation.

Entergy, however, can continue to operate the reactors even after their licenses expire so long as the federal renewal process is ongoing.

The three judges at the NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB), which serves as the agency's judicial arm, started evidentiary hearings near the plant in October to consider 10 complaints raised by New York State and two public interest groups, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater Inc and Riverkeeper Inc.

The NRC has scheduled several days of hearings through at least mid-December. On Wednesday, the NRC said it did not know when, or if, a second round of hearings would be scheduled and that a decision on the challenges would likely come months after the hearings are done.

SANDY PROMPTS ACTION

The contingency plan for Indian Point was one of Governor Cuomo's Energy Highway Blueprint proposals issued by a task force in October.

Cuomo proposed the Energy Highway plan in January to modernize the state's energy infrastructure.

The state's Public Service Commission said it decided to move forward this week on three proposals in the Energy Highway Blueprint, including the Indian Point proposal, because of Superstorm Sandy.

Sandy caused billions of dollars of damage and left millions of New Yorkers in the dark - some for more than two weeks - after striking the U.S. East Coast in late October.

The other Blueprint recommendations the Public Service Commission said it has decided move forward on now are proposals to build over 1,000 MW of new transmission capacity between upstate New York and New York City, at an estimated cost of $1 billion, and proposals to expand the state's use of natural gas by residential and business customers.

One megawatt can power about 1,000 homes in New York.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/28/utilities-entergy-indianpoint-idUSL1E8MS77020121128

Council Speaker Urges Stormproofing as the Civic Conversation Shifts

By DAVID W. CHEN

New York TImes

11/13/12

The Association for a Better New York breakfast is a mandatory pit stop on the road to higher office for local politicians, and for weeks, Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, had been planning to use her moment to talk about education proposals to help the middle class.

But then Hurricane Sandy arrived and swept aside those plans.

So on Tuesday, Ms. Quinn took the stage and, before some of the city’s business, labor and political elite, outlined a series of steps to reduce damage from future storms. She talked, for instance, about pushing for legislation that would require utility wires in flood-prone areas to be buried underground. She talked, as well, about accelerating a host of city and federal studies on the feasibility of storm surge barriers, which she said could cost $16 billion.

While all of the expected 2013 mayoral contenders have talked about the devastating impact of the storm, Ms. Quinn was the first to deliver a major speech on the subject. In so doing, she reinforced the growing sense in political circles that the hurricane has upended the city’s public conversation and once-little-discussed issues like climate change and disaster preparedness have become central to the mayor’s race.

“Two weeks ago, we were reminded that our city is vulnerable to the forces of nature, that the reality of climate changes puts our homes and our safety at risk,” Ms. Quinn said. “What we do in this moment — it will determine whether we let that reality define us, to hold us back, or to inspire us, to push to do what we know is hard.”

Part of the reason Ms. Quinn was able to get out in front on post-hurricane planning was the luck of the calendar. One of her chief rivals, Bill de Blasio, the public advocate, spoke to the same civic group before the storm, and he focused on education. Another leading candidate, William C. Thompson Jr., a former city comptroller, is expected to address the group in January.

All of the candidates have been visiting parts of the city most affected by the storm, urging more or better services for those without homes or electricity and endeavoring to show that they are concerned about the storm’s impact. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was the first to reach an explicitly political conclusion from the storm, endorsing President Obama for re-election after the hurricane because, he said, he believed Mr. Obama would do the better job addressing climate change.

In her speech, delivered at the Grand Hyatt in Midtown Manhattan, Ms. Quinn mixed personal anecdotes with policy pronouncements. A native of Long Island, she reminisced about summers on Rockaway Beach walking the Boardwalk — now destroyed — with her mother and aunt. She also described how Councilman Domenic M. Recchia Jr., who represents Coney Island, was personally affected.

“Sewage was coming out of Domenic’s drains in his sink and in his bathtub,” she said.

Ms. Quinn called on utilities to build structures around power plants and substations in vulnerable areas to guard against storm surges of at least 20 feet — higher than Hurricane Sandy’s surge. She said the city should consider tighter requirements for floodproofing boilers, generators and electrical equipment, or pass rules requiring new buildings to be built above flood level.

She pledged that the City Council would formally ask the federal Department of Energy to investigate the failures in the gasoline-distribution network. And she said that Senator Charles E. Schumer would push to get a study performed by the Army Corps of Engineers to analyze the feasibility of building storm-surge barriers or other protective structures to help protect the city against future storms.

“The sum total of everything I described could reach $20 billion,” she said. But she said “it is always the role of the federal government to help cities rebuild after a storm.”

Mr. Bloomberg, asked about Ms. Quinn’s remarks during a hurricane-related event in the Rockaways, said that “it would be much better if everybody’s wires were buried,” but cautioned, “I don’t know where the money would come from.”

Consolidated Edison dismissed one of Ms. Quinn’s criticisms — that it should have shut off power earlier at its 14th Street plant, which later exploded — saying an earlier shutdown would not have made a difference. But Chris Olert, a utility spokesman, said Con Edison was open to proposals “to move equipment underground and other issues to further protect residents and vital infrastructure involving major storms.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/nyregion/council-speaker-quinn-urges-steps-to-protect-against-hurricanes.html?nl=nyregion&emc=edit_ur_20121114

Cuomo on utilities: "Not God-given monopolies'

November 5, 2012 
By KEN SCHACHTER AND JOHN DYER 

Hudson Valley leaders blasted the region's electric utilities on Monday as election officials scrambled to prepare for the presidential vote, gas lines shrunk slightly, kids returned to school and a nor'easter threatened to bring more wind and rain to residents struggling to recover from Hurricane Sandy.

"I am not happy with any of them," Cuomo said of Con Edison, Orange & Rockland and New York State Electric and Gas during an evening news conference in Albany. "The utility companies have not performed adequately. I have let them know that."

Cuomo said the state would conduct hearings on the performance of the utilities and potentially impose penalties, which could range from sanctions to revoking their licenses.

"We can contract with other utility companies," Cuomo said, noting that 480,000 New Yorkers still have no electricity, including about 110,000 utility customers in the Hudson Valley. "These are not God-given monopolies. I will review all of them."

Cuomo took his shots after county executives in Rockland, Westchester and Orange County said they were fed up.

Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef had a news conference with Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy as about 19,000 Rockland County customers remained without power as of late Monday. The number of outages represents around 20 percent of the county's residents, Vanderhoef said.

"One in five people after 7 1/2 days is unacceptable," he said. "They are angry and frustrated and they want to know what we're doing. It's just impossible to think that that many people will spend a cold night in Rockland County without any power."

In Westchester County, County Executive Rob Astorino said that he would climb utility poles and join repair crews if it would help the approximately 70,000 Westchester County residents who still didn't have electricity as of Monday evening.

But Astorino added that stridency would not speed up the process.

"The louder we shout, 'Death penalty for the utility companies' is not going to get things done any more quickly," Astorino said. "Rest assured we're holding their feet to the fire."

With about 14,000 Orange County residents still without power on Monday night, County Executive Ed Diana demanded that state regulators review the performance of utility companies.

"It is simply unacceptable that so many Orange County residents remain without power this long after the storm," Diana said in a statement. "The outages threaten the life and safety of our residents, especially our sick and elderly."

Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano also chimed in, charging that Con Ed has failed to respond to the city's 10,000 customers without power.

"Yonkers has been overlooked by Con Ed," Spano said in a statement.

O&R spokesman Mike Donovan acknowledged that "frustration is building up" but said power had been restored to 81 percent of the company's customers in Rockland County and 80 percent in Orange County.

"We're doing everything we can," Donovan said.

Con Edison Spokesman Allan Drury said the delays in bringing power back were a result of the scope of Sandy's damage.

Tropical Storm Irene, which had been the biggest storm in Con Ed history, caused blackouts for 203,841 customers in 2011, Drury said. By contrast, Sandy knocked out more than 950,000. "This is not only the biggest in company history, but the biggest by a huge margin," Drury said.

The power outages caused board of elections officials throughout the Hudson Valley to scramble for much of the day to make sure polling stations had electricity. By Monday evening, Rockland and Orange counties had designated a few alternate sites, and Westchester County officials told voters to proceed to their normal locations, saying generators would be running at buildings in need of power.

"All voters should go to their regular polling places," said Westchester County Board of Election Commissioners Douglas Colety and Reginald LaFayette in a public statement.

Random observations and comments from drivers suggested gas lines were growing shorter on Monday as repairs brought electricity to stations that had shut down and other were resupplied. But it was still common to wait a few hours for gas on Monday evening. Many New Yorkers were traveling upstate or to Connecticut to find open stations.

Charles Green, a Manhattan resident working a construction job in Peekskill, pulled his car into the Shell station in Westchester County as his gas gauge registered empty early on Monday and fueled up quickly.

"I'm pretty much shocked," Green said. "I feel like I got lucky, really lucky."

At his news conference, Cuomo said the state was streamlining rules to bring fuel from neighboring states. But he also warned people not to gas up more than they needed.

"Hoarding is only going to compound the situation and make it worse," he said.

The sense that the region was slowly but surely bouncing back was perhaps most pronounced in schools that opened after a week of closures due to the storm.

Sixteen-year-old Jess Tuttman, an 11th-grader at Ossining High School, said he was easing back into his regular routine.

"I just want to get back into the swing of things," he said.

Monday's good news was tempered by fears of the nor'easter that was threatening to arrive in the Hudson Valley on Wednesday.

Forecast to churn up the coast from Georgia, the storm could bring more rain and pack gusts of 35-40 mph in the southern portions of the Hudson Valley and 25-35 mph farther north, National Weather Service meteorologist Joe Pollina said.

"The trees that endured Sandy may have been weakened a little," he said. "Any wind that comes with this storm could make other trees fall down."

Early in the day, Con Edison issued a statement saying that 84 percent of customers who had lost power during Sandy had their power restored, significant progress on the company's pledge to fix 90 percent of power outages by the end of the weekend. The company added that the coming nor'easter could slow restoration efforts.

"The company is monitoring the rain and wind forecasted for later this week," the statement said. The company said high winds and heavy rains could delay work on homes and businesses affected by Hurricane Sandy and could cause additional outages."

O&R's Donovan was more positive. The extraordinarily large group of 2,500 outside contractors supplementing the utility's 1,000-strong in-house repair force puts the company in a unique position to cope with the storm, he said.

"We have sufficient crews to address any damage," he said. "We're not setting aside crews to deal with the nor'easter. When it comes, we'll deal with it."

Although he didn't relieve the utilities of their responsibilities, Cuomo agreed that the new storm could hamper the region's recovery.

"This is complicated because it is a storm that would approach before we've recovered from the first storm and it would hit communities, some of which will not have power," the governor said.

Relief workers warned residents without heat to beware of signs of hypothermia as temperatures dip into the 30s in the coming days.

"If you feel yourself getting confused, where you can't feel your extremities, make sure you have plenty of blankets and you drink plenty of water," said Naomi Adler, president of the United Way of Westchester and Putnam.

http://newyork.newsday.com/westchester/cuomo-on-utilities-not-god-given-monopolies-1.4188255

Midtown Developer Accuses Con Ed of Overcharging

By PATRICK McGEEHAN

New York Times

October 9, 2012

It is not easy being green and trying to keep the electric company from raising your rates.

The owner of the Bank of America Tower in Midtown Manhattan is learning that lesson. For the second time in less than a year, it has accused Consolidated Edison of trying to overcharge for the sophisticated power plant in the building, which it has heralded as the most environmentally advanced skyscraper in the country.

Last November, the developer, the Durst Organization, persuaded state utilities regulators that Con Edison had overbilled it by more than $290,000. Now, the developer is asking the regulators to prevent the utility from increasing the annual gas bill for the tower by more than $85,000.

The disputes provide a glimpse into the underbelly of a 55-story building that the Durst Organization has called an icon for its efficient use of energy. The tower contains a cogeneration system that produces electricity to run the lights and computers in its offices and trading floors.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo have called for more buildings to generate their own electricity to reduce demands on the power grid and reduce waste. The Durst Organization argued in its complaint to the state Public Service Commission that the tower was meant to serve as “a demonstration project” for such plants, but that Con Edison’s billing practices could have a “chilling impact” on the development of others.

The current dispute centers on what the building does with some of the fuel it obtains from Con Ed. Most of the natural gas piped into the building from beneath 42nd Street near Bryant Park fires the power plant. Rather than waste the exhaust from that combustion, the system feeds it into a boiler that produces steam to heat and cool the tower.

But that equipment, known as a heat recovery steam generator, is not always sufficient. When it is not, a gas-fired backup system produces additional steam to help with the heating or cooling.

Until now, Con Edison had been giving the building a discount on the gas used by the backup system. But after another customer proposed using a similar system, Con Edison executives said they should not have been applying that discount to the Bank of America Tower. The lower rate is only for gas used to generate electricity, relieving some burden on the citywide grid, not for producing steam, they said.

“If the machine is being used to do essentially the same thing as a boiler would, we think that is not eligible for this rate because it’s not helping with the electric system,” Margarett Jolly, manager of distributed generation for Con Edison, said in an interview on Tuesday.

She said a decision by the regulators in Durst’s favor would set a precedent just as in-building power generation is catching on in the city and could shift more cost onto other customers. Durst estimated that the loss of the discount would cost the building $86,129 per year.

The developer likened the billing dispute to the one that it took to the commission in November. Durst said then that Con Ed’s overestimation of the building’s peak demand for electricity had resulted in improper charges of more than $290,000. The regulators agreed, but Con Edison has asked them to reconsider.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/10/nyregion/con-ed-is-accused-of-overcharging-in-midtown-skyscraper.html

New York Is Lagging as Seas and Risks Rise, Critics Warn

September 10, 2012

By MIREYA NAVARRO

NY Times

With a 520-mile-long coast lined largely by teeming roads and fragile infrastructure, New York City is gingerly facing up to the intertwined threats posed by rising seas and ever-more-severe storm flooding.

So far, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has commissioned exhaustive research on the challenge of climate change. His administration is expanding wetlands to accommodate surging tides, installing green roofs to absorb rainwater and prodding property owners to move boilers out of flood-prone basements.

But even as city officials earn high marks for environmental awareness, critics say New York is moving too slowly to address the potential for flooding that could paralyze transportation, cripple the low-lying financial district and temporarily drive hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.

Only a year ago, they point out, the city shut down the subway system and ordered the evacuation of 370,000 people as Hurricane Irene barreled up the Atlantic coast. Ultimately, the hurricane weakened to a tropical storm and spared the city, but it exposed how New York is years away from — and billions of dollars short of — armoring itself.

“They lack a sense of urgency about this,” said Douglas Hill, an engineer with the Storm Surge Research Group at Stony Brook University, on Long Island.

Instead of “planning to be flooded,” as he put it, city, state and federal agencies should be investing in protection like sea gates that could close during a storm and block a surge from Long Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean into the East River and New York Harbor.

Others express concern for areas like the South Bronx and Sunset Park in Brooklyn, which have large industrial waterfronts with chemical-manufacturing plants, oil-storage sites and garbage-transfer stations. Unless hazardous materials are safeguarded with storm surges in mind, some local groups warn, residents could one day be wading through toxic water.

“A lot of attention is devoted to Lower Manhattan, but you forget that you have real industries on the waterfront” elsewhere in the city, said Eddie Bautista, executive director of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, which represents low-income residents of industrial areas. “We’re behind in consciousness-building and disaster planning.”

Other cities are also tackling these issues, at their own pace.

New shoreline development around San Francisco Bay must now be designed to cope with the anticipated higher sea levels under new regional regulations imposed last fall. In Chicago, new bike lanes and parking spaces are made of permeable pavement that allows rainwater to filter through it. Charlotte, N.C., and Cedar Falls, Iowa, are restricting development in flood plains. Maryland is pressing shoreline property owners to plant marshland instead of building retaining walls.

Officials in New York caution that adapting a city of eight million people to climate change is infinitely more complicated and that the costs must be weighed against the relative risks of flooding. The last time a hurricane made landfall directly in New York City was more than a century ago.

Many decisions also require federal assistance, like updated flood maps from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that incorporate sea level rise, and agreement from dozens of public agencies and private partners that own transportation, energy, telecommunications and other infrastructure.

“It’s a million small changes that need to happen,” said Adam Freed, until August the deputy director of the city’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability. “Everything you do has to be a calculation of the risks and benefits and costs you face.”

And in any case, Mr. Freed said, “you can’t make a climate-proof city.”

So city officials are pursuing a so-called resilience strategy that calls for strengthening the city’s ability to weather the effects of serious flooding and recover from it.

Flooding Threat Grows

Unlike New Orleans, New York City is above sea level. Yet the city is second only to New Orleans in the number of people living less than four feet above high tide — nearly 200,000 New Yorkers, according to the research group Climate Central.

The waters on the city’s doorstep have been rising roughly an inch a decade over the last century as oceans have warmed and expanded. But according to scientists advising the city, that rate is accelerating, because of environmental factors, and levels could rise two feet higher than today’s by midcentury. More frequent flooding is expected to become an uncomfortable reality.

With higher seas, a common storm could prove as damaging as the rare big storm or hurricane is today, scientists say. Were sea levels to rise four feet by the 2080s, for example, 34 percent of the city’s streets could lie in the flood-risk zone, compared with just 11 percent now, a 2011 study commissioned by the state said.

New York has added bike lanes, required large buildings to track and reduce their energy use, banned the dirtiest home heating oils, and taken other steps to reduce the emissions that contribute to global warming. But with shoreline development that ranges from public beaches to towering high rises — and a complex mix of rivers, estuaries, bays and ocean — the city needs to size up the various risks posed by rising seas before plunging ahead with vast capital projects or strict regulations, city officials argue.

Yet the city’s plan for waterfront development dismisses any notion of retreat from the shoreline. Curbing development or buying up property in flood plains, as some smaller cities have done, is too impractical here, city officials say, especially because the city anticipates another million residents over the next two decades.

Rather, the city and its partners are incorporating flood-protection measures into projects as they go along.

Consolidated Edison, the utility that supplies electricity to most of the city, estimates that adaptations like installing submersible switches and moving high-voltage transformers above ground level would cost at least $250 million. Lacking the means, it is making gradual adjustments, with about $24 million spent in flood zones since 2007.

Some steps taken by city agencies have already subtly altered the city’s looks. At Brooklyn Bridge Park, a buffer between the East River and neighborhoods like Dumbo, porous riprap rock and a soft edge of salt-resistant grass have been laid in to help absorb the punch of a storm surge. Sidewalk bioswales, or vegetative tree pits that can fill up with rainwater to reduce storm water and sewage overflows and also minimize flooding, are popping up around the city.

Over all, the city is hoping to funnel more than $2 billion of public and private money to such environmental projects over the next 18 years, officials say.

“It’s a series of small interventions that cumulatively, over time, will take us to a more natural system” to deal with climate change, said Carter H. Strickland, the city’s environmental commissioner.

Planning experts say it is hard to muster public support for projects with uncertain or distant benefits.

“There’s a lot of concern about angering developers,” said Ben Chou, a water-policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

New York planners have proposed requiring developers to assess the climate-change risks faced by new buildings so they can consider protection like retractable watertight gates for windows. But no such requirements have been imposed so far.

While some new buildings are being elevated or going above current required flood protections — like a new recycling plant on a Brooklyn pier and the Port Authority’s transit hub at the World Trade Center site — most new construction is not being adapted to future flood risks yet, industry representatives said.

Some experts argue that the encounter with Hurricane Irene last year and a flash flood in 2007 underscored the dangers of deferring aggressive solutions.

Klaus H. Jacob, a research scientist at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, said the storm surge from Irene came, on average, just one foot short of paralyzing transportation into and out of Manhattan.

If the surge had been just that much higher, subway tunnels would have flooded, segments of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive and roads along the Hudson River would have turned into rivers, and sections of the commuter rail system would have been impassable or bereft of power, he said.

The most vulnerable systems, like the subway tunnels under the Harlem and East Rivers, would have been unusable for nearly a month, or longer, at an economic loss of about $55 billion, said Dr. Jacob, an adviser to the city on climate change and an author of the 2011 state study that laid out the flooding prospects.

“We’ve been extremely lucky,” he said. “I’m disappointed that the political process hasn’t recognized that we’re playing Russian roulette.”

With more rain and higher seas, some envision more turmoil — like mile after mile of apartment buildings without working elevators, lights or potable water.

“That’s a key vulnerability,” said Rafael Pelli, a Manhattan architect who serves on a climate-change committee that advises the Department of City Planning. “If you have to relocate 10,000 people, how do you do that?”

Barriers to Block Tides

Some New Yorkers argue that the answer lies not in evacuation, but in prevention, like armoring city waterways with the latest high-tech barriers. Others are not so sure.

At a recent meeting of Manhattan community board leaders in Harlem, Robert Trentlyon, a resident of Chelsea, argued for sea gates.

A 2004 study by Mr. Hill and the Storm Surge Research Group at Stony Brook recommended installing movable barriers at the upper end of the East River, near the Throgs Neck Bridge; under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge; and at the mouth of the Arthur Kill, between Staten Island and New Jersey. During hurricanes and northeasters, closing the barriers would block a huge tide from flooding Manhattan and parts of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and New Jersey, they said.

City officials say that sea barriers are among the options being studied, but others say such gates could interfere with aquatic ecosystems and with the flushing out of pollutants, and may eventually fail as sea levels keep rising.

And then there is the cost. Installing barriers for New York could reach nearly $10 billion.

There is more agreement on how to protect the subway system. Several studies have advised the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to move quickly to increase pumping capacity at stations, raise entrances and design floodgates to block water from entering.

In 2009, a commission warned that global warming posed “a new and potentially dire challenge for which the M.T.A. system is largely unprepared.”

Five years ago, a summer-morning deluge brought about 3 1/2 inches of rain in two hours and paralyzed the system for hours, stranding 2.5 million riders.

That prompted the transit agency to spend $34 million on improvements like raising some ventilation grates nine inches above sidewalks and building steps that head upward, before descending, at flood-prone stations. All the money came from the agency’s capital budget, which also pays for subway cars and buses.

“This is a vicious circle of the worst kind,” Projjal Dutta, the transportation agency’s director of sustainability, said of the financial effect. “You’re cutting public transportation, which cuts down greenhouse gases, to harden against climate change.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/nyregion/new-york-faces-rising-seas-and-slow-city-action.html?_r=1&hp

Life Without Indian Point, Redux

By MATTHEW L. WALD

NY Times

9/7/12

The consequences of running the Indian Point nuclear reactors or shutting them down run from easy-to-spot to hard-to-calculate.

Is a serious accident plausible? Would retiring the reactors open the way for alternative sources of electricity that pose a lower safety risk? Or simply ensure an economic blow?

Two Westchester County business groups have sponsored a study, released on Friday, that takes the latter view — a counterpoint a 2011 study by opponentsthat argued that there was nothing indispensable about the reactors.

The new report, by Howard J. Axelrod, a longtime economics consultant, predicts payroll and tax payment losses (which seem pretty certain) and takes a stab at predicting electricity rate increases and a general decline in economic activity. The study was sponsored by the Business Council of Westchester (of which Entergy, Indian Point’s owner, is a member), and the Westchester Business Alliance

The report updates a version commissioned by Westchester business interests four years ago.

Some of the numbers are straightforward. Indian Point has 1,200 employees and uses another 200 contractors. The employee payroll is $130 million, and the plant pays $75 million in property taxes plus additional taxes to New York State.

The study quotes an earlier estimate that the plant contributes $363 million to local purchases. (Some fraction of the payroll and property taxes would continue during the decommissioning of the plant’s reactors.) A high-efficiency natural gas plant of the same capacity might employ only 20 workers, the study said.

It’s a little harder to estimate the effect on electric rates.

New York State’s electricity system relies on a complicated auction method whereby utilities like Con Edison say how much electricity they think they will need and generating companies say what price they need to produce electricity.

A computer tallies up the demand and ranks the suppliers by price, from lowest to highest. It then decides which generators will run, beginning with the lowest-priced and continuing until demand is met, with the last megawatt-hour being the priciest. Yet all generators get paid the price demanded by the last supplier.

Indian Point is a relatively low-cost supplier. If it disappears, the computer will have to reach higher into the stack of generation offers to match supply to demand, and that last megawatt-hour will be more expensive. So all generators will receive more income, and all consumers will pay more.

Mr. Axelrod’s study puts Indian Point’s energy costs at $44 to $53 per megawatt-hour. He says that the least costly alternative would be a plant burning natural gas at high efficiency, which would cost $76 to $109 per megawatt-hour. He estimates an increase in electricity rates of 6.3 percent, or $374 million a year.

Of the two functioning Indian Point reactors (Unit 1 closed down in 1974), Unit 2’s license expires in 2013, and Unit 3’s in 2015. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has yet to turn down a request for a license extension, although it wants some steps to be taken on safety at the plant.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants the plant retired, and while the state has no jurisdiction over safety, it is trying to deny a vital water-use permit. Under the commission’s rules, the plant’s existing licenses are valid beyond their expiration dates if an application for a renewal is still under consideration.

The debate over the effects of shutting down the plant will surely drag on.

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/07/life-without-indian-point-redux/

Con Edison and ThinkEco Launch Window Air Conditioner Energy Savings Program Device Allows Customers to Control Their Window A/C Power Usage

NEW YORK, NY, Apr 26, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- As temperatures begin to climb this summer, Con Edison and ThinkEco have partnered to launch a window air conditioner program that will allow customers to use less energy, protect the environment and help maintain reliable service during times of peak demand in New York City. Con Edison and ThinkEco plan to create smart A/C control through modlets on 10,000 New York City air conditioners, resulting in five megawatts of demand reduction, enough power for 5,000 homes. Con Edison plans to distribute the modlets this summer in large apartment buildings throughout New York City, working with building owners and tenants to install the energy saving devices. The modlet ( http://themodlet.com/demo.html ) is a simple plug-in smart outlet that can be controlled by a smart A/C thermostat and a user's online modlet account, allowing customers to control the temperature setting of any window air conditioner. Customers can remotely turn on/off their A/C from any smart phone or browser, and set the temperature. In addition, users can preset schedules through any web browser, so that their window air conditioners only turn on when needed, transforming the stand-alone window air conditioner into a smart, networked device that gives users enhanced convenience and control. Customers who participate in the program will also be alerted when a peak usage event is called, and Con Edison will adjust the unit's temperature. With over six million window air conditioner units in Con Edison's service area -- which sometimes run unnecessarily when residents are not home -- the ability for Con Edison to adjust air conditioner temperatures remotely during a heat wave could help to manage peak summer demand. "Con Edison continues to increase engagement with our customers by introducing new technologies that help them save energy, save money, and protect the environment," said Rebecca Craft, Director of Energy Efficiency Programs of Con Edison. "Our work with ThinkEco is forging a new way to help reduce the energy waste associated with window air conditioners, while keeping city residents comfortable during heat waves." The coolNYC program ( www.coolnycprogram.com ), created by ThinkEco and Con Edison, is a new approach to managing residential peak usage by combining ease-of-use in controlling window air conditioner thermostats with an incentivized program that uses real-time energy tracking capabilities. Con Edison can use the ThinkEco system to reduce strain on the grid by sending signals to participating customers' air conditioner units when demand peaks. The program technology allows Con Edison to focus on any geographic area of high priority during an emergency. "The coolNYC program is proving how New York City residents are highly receptive to using smart consumer-oriented products that save energy and enhance personal convenience," said Erik Katz, CEO of ThinkEco. "As electrical demand continues to increase, we need to ensure a way to relieve pressure on the grid in the absence of new capacity." Visit www.thinkecoinc.com to purchase a modlet and checkout http://themodlet.com/demo.html to see how easy they are to use. Participating residential customers receive the modlet smartA/C kit, which integrates Con Edison's intellectual property with ThinkEco's modlet platform. The smartA/C kit includes a modlet, a remote-control thermostat and access to a web-based application. ThinkEco is a former tenant of the New York City Accelerator for a Clean and Renewable Economy (NYC ACRE at NYU-Poly) the NYSERDA-funded clean-tech incubator helping transition New York to a low-carbon future. About ThinkEco, Inc. New York City-based ThinkEco Inc. is a leading provider of easy-to-use energy efficiency solutions for homes and businesses. Its patented modlet system is a networked and scalable smart-plug platform that wirelessly connects any plug load to ThinkEco's robust cloud solution, powered by proprietary algorithms. The modlet provides the remote metering of plug-load power consumption in real time, and enables users to set savings schedules to better control their energy use and quantify savings. 

  http://www.marketwatch.com/story/con-edison-and-thinkeco-launch-window-air-conditioner-energy-savings-program-2012-04-26

ConEd Could Be Raising Rates Even Higher As The Size Of The City's Electric Vehicle Fleet Explodes

Jaclyn P. Bouchard | Dec. 5, 2011, 3:23 PM
Business Insider


In order to power the largest electric vehicle (EV) fleet in the nation Manhattan is about to have as many charging stations as gas stations.

The city is home to 48 old-school filling stations while the number of charging stations is currently at 40 and growing by the month.

Under PlaNYC, a comprehensive sustainability program, the City of New York partnered with Consolidated Edison, has invested $130 million in 26,500 hybrid and EVs across all city agencies such as the fire and police departments.

Over 4,000 Smith Electric hybrid commercial trucks are already streaming across Manhattan with that number expected to increase to 140,000 over the next decade, with even the New York Taxi & Limousine Commission committing to a Nissan Leaf pilot program.

Con Edison is watching these numbers closely and has set up a section of their website outlining specific  charging plans that won't disrupt energy flow to the city. Plugging in during off peak hours after 10:00 p.m. and before 10:00 a.m. will be key.

To that end the utility company could raise its already high rates to keep drivers from plugging in any time but off peak. 

Whether New York is ready or not, change is coming, money is invested, and the plan has been set — now we know where all that tax money goes.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/coned-could-be-raising-rates-even-higher-as-citys-electric-vehicle-fleet-grows-2011-12#ixzz1fic01qEp

Con Ed 'optimistic' no Lower Manhattan shutdown

Associated Press

NEW YORK — A spokeswoman says Con Edison is "cautiously optimistic" that it won' t have to turn off power to about 17,000 people at the southern tip of Manhattan. The area encompasses the nation's financial capital, ground zero and the luxury high-rise apartments of Battery Park City.

The utility had considered a shutdown to protect its underground equipment if Tropical Storm Irene pushed seawater over a flood wall and swamped the area. But flooding there has been minimal.

Spokeswoman Sara Banda says "the situation is looking better and better" in lower Manhattan, but Con Ed is still watching conditions there. She says the utility's focus is shifting to other areas, where overhead power lines have been damaged.

About 95,000 Con Ed customers are without power in the city and suburbs.

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP79038149617c41cfa0db223ab58355f6.html

Con Ed’s Decision on Shutdown Likely Sunday Morning

By Michael Howard Saul

Wall Street Journal

Power could be shut off in Lower Manhattan — specifically hitting Wall Street — as a precaution against storm surges as Hurricane Irene strikes, authorities said. A final decision will likely come Sunday morning.

Consolidated Edison Co., the power company for about 3.3 million buildings, homes and businesses in the New York City area, estimated Saturday afternoon that 6,500 downtown customers, all south of the Brooklyn Bridge, could face a preemptive shutdown as early as Sunday morning.

John Miksad, Con Edison’s senior vice president of electric operations, said the utility is particularly concerned about the financial industry and has reached out to Wall Street firms about the potential shutdown.

“The New York Stock Exchange, and all the exchanges, have power generation on site that they could run,” he said. “We’ve actually reached out to them to sort of get a better understanding of what else we could do to support that. And, again, all of this is worst-case scenario, assuming the storm and the tides align (and) we need to make that decision.”

Con Ed has already made the decision to turn off part of the city’s underground steam system, a move that affects 50 customers along 10 miles out of the 110-mile network. These customers, most living downtown, would lose hot water as a result.

As for the 6,500 customers most in danger of a preemptive power shutdown, Mr. Miksad predicted a decision on that front would be made around 8 a.m. Sunday.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, at a news conference Saturday, said people in Lower Manhattan should expect to have their power turned off.

http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2011/08/27/hurricane-irene-lower-manhattan-power-shutdown-decision-on-sunday-morning/

No Plans to Cut Power in Lower Manhattan, Con Edison Says

August 27, 2011, 12:41 PM

By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM

NewYork Times

Officials at Consolidated Edison said on Saturday they had no current plans for a pre-emptive shutdown of electrical power in parts of Manhattan. But the utility said its most vulnerable substations on the island, most of which are by the waterline in the financial district, would be monitored for any severe flooding conditions.

If a shutdown of those substations did become necessary, the affected area would be the southeastern tip of Manhattan, bordered by the Brooklyn Bridge on the north, Broadway on the west and the East River on the south and east, said Chris Olert, a spokesman for Con Ed.

Mr. Olert said about 6,400 customers, including some large office buildings and multidwelling apartment houses, might potentially lose power in that scenario.

In a news conference earlier on Saturday, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg warned of the specter of an electrical shutdown in parts of downtown Manhattan because of the vulnerability of low-lying Con Edison substations.

“It’s conceivable that in downtown Manhattan, for example, there will be no electricity, as well as a lot of water in the streets,” the mayor said.

A shutdown in the area would occur only if a substation were flooded during the storm, Mr. Olert said. Such action would be taken to prevent more severe damage to electrical circuits and to allow power to be restored more quickly once the storm had passed.

But the utility is far more concerned with the overhead electrical wires on Staten Island and in Queens, the Bronx and parts of Westchester County, Mr. Olert said. Con Ed will be closely tracking wind conditions in those areas, and it has warned residents to look out for, and stay away from, any downed wires.

As for Lower Manhattan, Mr. Olert said, “we are not doing any shutdowns today, unless something erupts.”