Consolidated Edison

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Image:Coned logo.gif Consolidated Edison, Inc. Template:NYSE is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the United States. The company provides a wide range of energy-related products and services to its customers through the following subsidiaries: Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc., a regulated utility providing electric, gas, and steam service in New York City and Westchester County, New York; Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc., a regulated utility serving customers in a 1,350 square mile area in southeastern New York state and adjacent sections of northern New Jersey and northeastern Pennsylvania; Con Edison Solutions, a retail energy supply and services company; Con Edison Energy, a wholesale energy supply company; Con Edison Development, a company that owns and operates generating plants and participates in other infrastructure projects; and Con Edison Communications, a telecommunications infrastructure company and service provider.

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Company History

In 1823, Con Edison's earliest corporate entity, the New York Gas Light Company, was founded by a consortium of New York City investors. In 1884, six gas companies combined into the Consolidated Gas Company.

The New York Steam Company began providing service in lower Manhattan in 1882. Today, Con Edison operates the largest steam system in the world, providing steam service to nearly 2,000 customers and serving more than 100,000 commercial and residential establishments in Manhattan from the Battery to 96th Street.

Con Edison's electric business also dates back to 1882, when Thomas Edison's Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York began supplying electricity to 59 customers in a one-square-mile area in lower Manhattan. By 1900, there were more than 30 companies generating and distributing electricity in New York City and Westchester County. But by 1920 there were far fewer, and the New York Edison Company (then part of Consolidated Gas) was clearly the leader.

In 1936, with electric sales far outstripping gas sales, the company incorporated and the name was changed to Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. The years that followed brought further amalgamations as Consolidated Edison acquired or merged with more than a dozen companies between 1936 and 1960. Con Edison today is the result of acquisitions, dissolutions and mergers of more than 170 individual electric, gas and steam companies.

From 1940 to 1956, Con Edison was the main target of George Metesky, the "Mad Bomber" who planted around thirty bombs in New York City. Metesky blamed his tuberculosis on his work history with Edison, but was denied a disability pension.

A former Con Edison building on 48th Street in Manhattan was converted first into the studio for the television game show Let's Make A Deal, and later into a recording studio called "The Power Station" because of its Edison history. In 1996, the studio was renamed Avatar Studios.

On January 1, 1998, following the deregulation of the utility industry in New York state, a holding company, Consolidated Edison, Inc., was formed. It is one of the nation’s largest investor-owned energy companies, with approximately $10 billion in annual revenues and $25 billion in assets. The company provides a wide range of energy-related products and services to its customers through two regulated utility subsidiaries and three competitive energy businesses. Con Edison, under a number of different corporate names, remains the longest continuously traded stock on the New York Stock Exchange.

Its largest subsidiary, Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. provides electric, gas and steam service to more than 3 million customers in New York City and Westchester County, New York, an area of 660 square miles with a population of nearly 9 million.

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