Con Edison to halt connecting new natural gas customers in much of Westchester

By Ben Glickman, Executive Editor|January 22, 2019

Con Edison to halt connecting new natural gas customers in much of Westchester

Con Edison will no longer accept requests for natural gas connections in southern and central Westchester, saying demand from new construction and conversions from oil-burning furnaces had exceeded supply and it was moving to maintain service to existing customers on winter’s coldest days.

New natural gas customers can sign up until March 15, the company said in an announcement Friday.

“Heat pumps, solar thermal and baseboard electric heating are among the alternative solutions that can meet some or all of our customers’ heating needs,” the statement said.

Con Edison specified several exceptions to the policy. Small business customers in food services may be allowed to use an existing service for cooking, and pre-existing customers with planned renovations can continue to receive service as long as their usage is not significantly increased.

Con Edison released the following statement on their website:

“The demand for natural gas in our service area has been experiencing significant growth primarily due to the construction of new buildings, the opening of new businesses,and conversions from oil to cleaner-burning natural gas in existing buildings. But all of this new demand for gas is reaching the limits of the current supplies to our service area.

As a result, and to maintain reliable service to our existing natural gas customers on the coldest days, we will no longer be accepting applications for natural gas connections from new customers in most of our Westchester County service area beginning March 15, 2019. There are some areas in the northernmost sections of the county where we have more capacity and may still be able to accept new customers. Existing customers are not affected by the moratorium.

We are developing additional programs through our Smart Solutions proposals to the NY Public Service Commission, and are working closely with NYSERDA, which offers incentive programs for clean energy solutions. Heat pumps, solar thermal and baseboard electric heating are among the alternative solutions that can meet some or all of our customers’ heating needs.

For more information, customers can call visit our website at conEd.com/NaturalGasMoratorium or contact us at 1-800-643-1289.”