In early 2019, Con Edison (Consolidated Edison, Inc.) filed for a substantial rate increase for both electric and gas service. The original proposal (“Original Filing” in Table 1) called for electric delivery rates to increase by 7.2% over 3 years, and gas to increase by 12.2% over the same period. Overall bill increases would have been even larger. In dollar terms, the Company’s original proposal would have increased electric revenues by $2.42 billion over 3 years and gas revenues by over $1.06 billion.
The New York State Public Service Commission approved the Joint Proposal rate changes in Table 1 without modification on January 16, 2020, citing as one of the primary reasons for doing so the agreement’s broad support from a diverse group of stakeholders.
Under the Joint Proposal, electric revenues would increase by only $1.41 billion and gas by $664 million, 41.9% and 37.4% less than requested, respectively.
Table 1: Original Filing
To provide an apples-to-apples comparison, the Joint Proposal numbers above exclude the impact of factors not included in the original filing, such as the expiration of tax credits, low-income assistance increases and the inclusion of system benefits charges in base rates. However, the final Joint Proposal levelized base rate increases across years in a way that reduces RY1 rates relative to RY2 and RY3. Therefore, the Joint Proposal appears to show larger increases in the outer years.
For delivery rates for large electric and gas customers, the proposed and final rate changes for 2020 are as follows:
Table 2: Proposed and Final Rate Changes for 2020
Under the provisions of a December 16, 2019 Order that extended the procedural schedule, the Commission approved a so-called “make whole” provision. Under this provision, Con Edison will be allowed to recover the entire RY1 increases over the months remaining in 2020. The “make whole” applies to both electric and gas to provide Con Edison the same revenues it would receive had rates gone into effect on January 1, 2020. The new rates for 2021 and 2022 will go into effect on January 1 of those years, so the “make whole” provision is not relevant to those years.
