Con Edison, in a partnership with New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) and electric vehicle service equipment (EVSE) network operator FLO, installed the 100th Level 2 public EV charging port in New York City, the companies announced on August 23.
The curbside charging pilot program, initiated about a year ago, was designed to increase adoption of EVs.
Con Edison, DOT and FLO are continuing to assess the performance of the charging stations to better serve New Yorkers. The data collected so far suggest the following:
- Curbside charging sites are being used at more than twice the anticipated rates. The target for year 1 of the project was 8 percent utilization across all sites. In July, the average utilization rate across all sites was 25 percent.
- Awareness of curbside EV chargers continues to increase. In a recent consumer survey, 20 percent of respondents indicated that they had seen EV chargers on the street in public parking places. This is three times the awareness level recorded during a baseline survey at the onset of the project.
Since their introduction last summer, the curbside chargers have delivered 550,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity, which equates to about 1.7 million miles of travel in a typical EV said Con Ed and FLO in a press release. The curbside chargers have eliminated the consumption of more than 67,000 gallons of gas and avoided more than 675 tons of CO2 emissions compared to gas-powered vehicles.
“From Staten Island to the Bronx and every borough in between, curbside charging makes it possible for New Yorkers without access to private charging ports to consider an EV for their next car,” said Vicki Kuo, senior vice president, Customer Energy Solutions for Con Edison.
The locations for charger ports for this pilot program were selected based on input from local elected officials and community stakeholders, geographic diversity, and projected demand for charging.
There are approximately 32,000 EVs registered in New York City and Westchester County. Con Edison sees an increasingly vibrant EV market in New York, citing the interest in its PowerReady program, which offers incentives covering up to 100 percent of the infrastructure costs of installing new chargers. The company aims to support the installation of approximately 19,000 chargers by 2025.
“New Yorkers are setting an example for cities across the country in their commitment to electrify their city,” said Louis Tremblay, president and CEO of FLO. “We know reliability is a crucial driver of EV adoption and we are proud to have been able to provide an unprecedented uptime of more than 99% in New York City by actively monitoring and maintaining every unit in the network.”
Customers charging up in New York can benefit from other Con Edison programs, including SmartCharge New York, which rewards drivers for charging their vehicles between midnight and 8 a.m. Charging costs $2.50 per hour during the day (6 am – 9 pm) and $1.00 per hour overnight. A daytime charge is equivalent to fueling up at a gas station, while overnight charging may cost up to 60 percent less, said Con Ed. More than 6,000 drivers currently enrolled in SmartCharge.
Taxi and rideshare companies are also taking advantage of SmartCharge.
Learn more about taxis using the SmartCharge program in the video at this link.
FLO has provided the charging stations and is managing the network under contract with Con Edison.
There are now more than 35,000 electric vehicles registered in Con Edison’s service area, an increase of nearly 5,900 vehicles since the beginning of the year.
Since its launch last year, Con Edison’s PowerReady incentive program has supported the installation of 600 Level 2 and DC Fast-Charge plugs for EVs, with 40 percent of those plugs installed in the past three months alone. Con Edison plans to support the installation of approximately 19,000 charge plugs by 2025.
Con Ed touts solar customers
In related clean energy news, Con Edison said its customers installed more than 4,000 solar electric systems in the first half of 2022, totaling nearly 40 megawatts of generating capacity, according to the company’s quarterly Clean Energy Update.
The utility said in a press release that the customer solar PV systems in its territory help power the grid on the hottest days of the summer when the A/C is cranked. In all, customer-owned solar capacity on Con Edison’s grid totals 436 megawatts spread across 47,000 individual systems, helping to meet growing demand for clean energy in the nation’s largest city.
Locally sited solar projects will play a role in reducing strain on the grid as rising temperatures increase demand for air conditioning. Brooklyn and Queens set a new record for electric demand during peak hours this summer, said the utility.
“Every day more of our customers are embracing the benefits of solar systems, electric vehicles and chargers, and other clean energy technologies,” said Kuo. “Con Edison is building a reliable, resilient and dynamic smart grid that will integrate these customer-owned resources alongside large amounts of new renewable power, helping drive New York toward its clean energy future.”
