Via Wiki Commons

The New York Times is reporting Con Ed may have overcharged numerous electricity consumers this summer because of limited access to meters during the lockout. Many customers were charged more than ever despite, in some cases, being out of town for much of the summer.

(by Alissa Fleck)

At first, reports the Times, Con Ed blamed July’s supposedly unusually warm weather conditions. After the Times called their bluff, explaining July was in fact not as hot as July of 2011, Con Ed changed their tune, blaming “union troubles,” according to Gothamist.

Con Ed decided charges based on meters in Staten Island, Westchester County and the Bronx which the company could read remotely during the lockout. A spokesman for Con Ed said meter readings in those locations were “10 to 15 percent higher than what [they] anticipated [them] to be during July.” Because of this, the company decided to add approximately 10 percent to electricity consumption estimates for customers whose meters were not read in July, reports the Times.

Reportedly, Con Ed will adjust consumers’ bills to the appropriate amount if they can prove they were overcharged. The bigger issue seems to be Con Ed taking its customers for a bunch of rubes.

The ConEd power plant on East 74th Street between East End Avenue and the FDR Drive. Photo by Patricia Voulgaris.

By Megan Bungeroth
Officials from Con Edison are paving the way to convert both of their Manhattan steam generating plants into natural gas-fueled facilities. Last week, representatives from the energy company came to Community Board 8 to explain how the conversion would work at their Upper East Side plant on East 74th Street and York Avenue.
“This will give Con Edison the ability to burn gas and support the city’s goal to expand the use of natural gas and reduce the use of No. 4 and No. 6 fuel oil,” said Jim Shannon, who works for Con Ed and presented the information to the board.
The plant currently produces steam by combusting oil in boilers, which causes air pollution in the form of nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxides, particulate matter and other harmful elements. The Upper East Side has some of the worst air quality in the city due to the high number of older buildings that burn dirty fuel oil—Con Edison said that eliminating the steam plant, a source of this pollution, will significantly improve the neighborhood’s air quality.
“We’re going to reduce the emissions coming from that stack,” said plant manager Gary Hugo, referring to the large tower that emits dark smoke when the plant is burning oil.
Shannon said that after the plant is converted, there will be a 50 percent reduction in noxious pollutants emitted, the equivalent of removing 16,000 cars from the streets, as well as a 10 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.
The plant generates about 2 million steam pounds per hour (that’s 26.2 billion pounds annually), Con Edison said, and services about 1,735 customers in Manhattan. Steam is used to power both heating and cooling systems and is a very clean energy source at its point of use.
The project will cost about $83 million, but officials say it will ultimately save many millions of dollars, which will be passed onto steam customers. Aside from its cost efficiency, Hugo said that a big reason Con Edison is moving ahead with the conversion is to meet regulations from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
Some board members questioned how disruptive the work will be, especially for a neighborhood already besieged by Second Avenue Subway construction. Shannon said that Con Edison is hoping for permits that allow them to work weekdays after 8 a.m., but the DOT has the final say on permitted times.
The second phase of construction will be mostly inside the plant and is slated for completion in December 2013.

Steam power (“To Save Powerhouse, Preservationists Take Aim At Riverside Center Plan,” June 30) is not going to become “obsolete.” Steam is used not only for heating, but for cooling as well, reducing the peak demand for electricity. The Con Edison steam system is also 50 percent co-generation, the ideal of environmentalists.

Daniel Gutman
Upper West Side

By Roland Li

Community Board 7 and its consultants presented a detailed set of changes for Riverside Center at a meeting June 29 that included eliminating Building Four of the proposed project and adding additional sidewalk space for pedestrians.

View of proposed Riverside Center from New Jersey.

John West, of consulting firm Buckhurst, Fish & Jacquemart, gave a critique of developer Extell’s design, which calls for five mixed-use buildings and public open space on the vacant plot of land between West 59th and 61st streets, spanning West End Avenue and the West Side Highway.

The most drastic change is the removal of Building Four, the proposed 31-story, 400-foot tower in the middle of the complex on the southern end. This would create a large block of new open space with a number of advantages, he argued. The greater size of this area would allow for more active use of the space, including sports, and the placement of the space would make it distinct and more inviting. A view to the southern Con Edison powerhouse, a building preservationists want to landmark, would also be created.

Along with Board 7, West believes that the current design of the project makes the public space uninviting, because parts of it are elevated on a podium, while others are broken up by a water scrim and narrow pathways. Other concerns included the shadows cast by the new towers—four of which are around 500 feet high—and the belief that West 59th Street will be turned into a service corridor with the new buildings’ rear entrances facing the street.

Other modifications, which West described as “tweaks,” include additional sidewalk space and the planting of new trees on West 59th Street, as well as bringing most of the open space to street level and extending West 60th Street throughout the complex.

West proposed a number of alterations to the design that are being considered by Board 7 in its recommendation towards the project. He said that the overall proposal is solid, but there are some changes that should be made.

“It has pretty good bones. It’s just an issue of moving the flesh around,” West said of the project.

An Extell representative at the meeting said the company would need more time to consider the changes, and was resistant to bringing the entire site to street level.

“We feel that would be the wrong thing to do. We’re meeting the grade over most of the site,” he said.

West had suggestions for the new retail space as well. He wants commercial space that faced streets with more pedestrian foot traffic, such as West End Avenue, and members of the board articulated their support for new stores.

Two additional pieces of the project were discussed at the end of the meeting. The Department of City Planning and its chair, Amanda Burden, have expressed support for increasing the complex’s affordable residential housing to 20 percent, up from 12 percent, a move that Board 7 also supports. The fate of the school is still up in the air. Extell has committed to build a 75,000-square-foot shell, but the city’s School Construction Authority has yet to decide whether to pay for an additional 75,000 square feet, a move that parents demand to alleviate student overcrowding in the area.

A full Board 7 meeting will focus on Riverside Center July 6 and an official vote on a recommendation is expected at a July 22 meeting.

Turn off air conditioners, unplug unused laptops and hang clothes on a line: Con Edison urged Upper West Siders June 28 to cut down on use of “non-essential” electrical appliances during a recent heat wave.

At press time, the utility was working to fix problems on electrical cables in the area. The cutback in electricity would “take pressure off the electrical system” while crews repair equipment, Con Edison wrote in a statement.

The affected area hit 78,000 Upper West Side Con Edison customers, between West 71st and 111th streets and Central Park West and the Hudson River.

Similar precautions were issued for parts of Brooklyn as well.

As the mega-development Riverside Center goes through the public review process, landmark advocates are worried about the future of the West 59th Street powerhouse.

The powerhouse, sitting just south of Riverside Center’s footprint, provided power to the city’s first subway system. This Beaux-Arts style structure, built in 1904, has long been on local preservationists’ wish list.

The Con Edison powerhouse, a Beaux-Arts style structure, has long been on local preservationists’ wish list.

But landmark advocates fear that Riverside Center’s design—as it stands now—would kill any chance of reusing the plant for public use, such as a museum or a market. The project has access points from West 60th and 61st streets and open space throughout the heart of the project. But West 59th Street has curb cuts for loading docks and the below-ground car servicing center.

“Those are things that have proven themselves to be life-deadening elements in the design,” said Kate Wood, executive director of Landmark West, a preservation group. “If that street feels like a service corridor… you’re creating a psychological barrier between the two developments.”

Preservationists are looking to the future when steam power becomes obsolete. Without a designation, preservationists worry that the powerhouse could be demolished or stripped of its architectural integrity. A designation would keep the detail and it could be used as a community space.

“It would be realistic if part of this environmental review thought about what this building could become and try to make sure there’s a dialogue between the two developments,” Wood said.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing on the powerhouse in July 2009, but nothing has been scheduled since then.

The powerhouse, owned by Con Edison, supplies steam to customers, including the Museum of Natural History and the Empire State Building. Con Edison has been against a landmark designation because the energy giant would be saddled with extra regulation that they say will hamper operations.

“Con Edison plans to continue using the 59th Street station as a steam plant and the Extell developers have indicated they want to be a steam customer,” said Allan Drury, a Con Edison spokesperson, in a statement. “Regardless of what decision they make on that, we will continue to use the plant as a steam plant to supply customers.”

Extell backs Con Edison’s position on landmarking, a spokesperson for the developer said. As for the condition of West 59th Street, the spokesperson said the block will be “vastly improved” over its current condition. Extell’s plans include landscaping and making the block wider.

State Sen. Tom Duane, a supporter of designating the powerhouse as a landmark, believes Con Ed can fulfill its duty as a power station and keep the ornate details intact. But Duane noted the project can change during the public review process, even cutting one of the towers, Building 4, from the proposal, if Community Board 7 gets its wish.

“The street life of 59th Street is still something that has to be determined in negotiations between the community, Riverside Center and Con Edison,” Duane said. “[West] 59th Street brings them all together.”