August 01, 2008 14:29 ET

Con Edison Sets New Record for Monthly Energy Use

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - August 1, 2008) - Con Edison (NYSE: ED) said today that July set a record for monthly electricity sendout of 6,702,321 megawatt hours, surpassing the previous mark of 6,649,832 used during August 2005. Sendout is the cumulative amount of energy distributed over the company's power grid. The July sendout translates to 6.7 billion kilowatt hours. A typical Con Edison customer in New York City uses approximately 350 kilowatt hours a month.

This new monthly record represents more than the amount of electricity used in Vermont or Alaska for an entire year. In addition, the weekend of July 19 and 20 was the second-highest record for weekend electricity sendout of 458,081 megawatt hours.

The company is investing more than $1.7 billion this year to upgrade and reinforce its electric delivery system, while continuing to urge the creation of more energy efficiency programs, for the more than 9 million people in New York City and Westchester County.

Con Edison's service area peak electric use is expected to grow at an annual average rate of 1.2 percent over the next five years, after implementing the company's demand side management (DSM) programs that help customers reduce their consumption of electricity at the time of highest system demand.

Con Edison urges all customers to conserve energy and to use air conditioners and other energy-intensive equipment wisely. In addition, the utility advises customers to turn off lights, televisions and computers when not in use, which will help lower their bills. For more energy savings tips, or to learn about the company's free programmable thermostat program, visit the Con Edison Web site at www.coned.com or contact the company at 1-800-75-CONED.