In a major settlement that could have far-reaching effects across the country, New York’s largest utility is now responsible for preparing for a future of extreme weather, including the effects of climate change.
Now, the state wants all of the utilities it oversees to think about how rising sea levels, extreme weather, and other possible effects of climate change will affect their operations and reliability when they plan and budget for future construction. Experts say that other states could use it as a model to deal with the effects of climate change.
As part of a settlement between the New York Public Service Commission (NYPSC) and Consolidated Edison, the largest electric utility in the New York City area, on February 20, the new rates for electricity, steam, and natural gas were approved for the next few years.
Partly because of the damage Hurricane Sandy did to the New York area and ConEd’s infrastructure, the settlement requires ConEd, one of the largest utilities in the country, to study how climate change will affect its infrastructure and how to change its operations to lessen the effects of climate change.
The commission went a step further when it told ConEd to study how it is affected by climate change. It also said that it expects all state utilities it oversees to do the same.
In its 2013 rate plan filings with the NYPSC, ConEd asked for $1 billion for “storm hardening.” This is the process of making utility lines and other infrastructure more storm-proof. As the NYPSC looked over the rate plan proposals, experts said that for the state to approve such a big investment, it should last for most of the rest of the 21st century.
For the NYPSC, this meant that ConEd’s lines would have to be able to handle the damage that could come from more extreme weather caused by climate change. ConEd will work with Columbia University and other groups over the next few years to come up with long-term plans for making its utility lines stronger.
In its settlement order, the NYPSC said that all utilities in New York State, including electricity, steam, natural gas, telephone, cable, and private water utilities, need to prepare for a changing climate, not just ConEd.
Sandy’s damage—44 deaths, billions of dollars in damage, flooded subways, and ConEd’s biggest power outage ever—shows how vulnerable the New York City area is to the threat of sea level rise and extreme weather as the climate changes. This includes the fact that rising sea levels make it more likely that heat waves will get worse and that hurricanes will cause damage with their storm surges. New York City realised last year that a storm like Sandy could cause $90 billion in damage by the middle of the century.
The NYPSC said, “We expect the utilities to use the most up-to-date data to figure out how climate change will affect their areas over the next few years and decades, and to take that into account in their system planning, construction forecasts, and budgets.”
Michael Gerrard, who runs the Center for Climate Change Law at New York City’s Columbia Law School, said that the NYPSC’s plan for how other utilities should deal with climate change is a first.