NYC electric service rated best in country.

New York City has the most reliable electrical service in the nation, a critical factor in the city's continued ability to retain business and attract new employers, the New York Building Congress reported recently. The Building Congress' Energy Committee, under the leadership of John F. Hennessy, Chairman of Syska & Hennessy, Inc. and Chairman of the Building Congress, examined Con Edison's electrical distribution network; questioned Con Edison executives and reviewed data in two independent surveys of utilities nationwide.

Concern about possible disruption of electrical service, especially in Lower Manhattan where financial service firms have a critical need for reliable power for computers and telecommunication, prompted the Energy Committee to undertake the review, said Committee Vice Chairman Bill Rudin of Rudin Management Co. Among the committee's findings: A survey of 75 utilities by Theodore Barry & Associates (TB&A) showed the average out-of-service time per customer in New York City and Westchester County (Con Edison's service area) was nine minutes in 1992, compared to a national average of 104 minutes. Con Edison's reliability was twice as good as the second best utility. A survey of 22 large cities, conducted by the Indianapolis Power & Light Co.. found that Con Edison customers were interrupted on an average of .06 times during 1992- a rate of six times per 100 years - the best average in the country and three times better than the second best utility.

Eighty percent of Con Edison's New York City customers, including 100 percent of its Manhattan customers, are served by underground cables, laid out in grids and divided into 55 local networks, 32 of them in Manhattan. For this Network System, the average out-of-service time per customer was 0.6 minutes in 1992, the TB&A Survey found. By using grids, rather than straight-line service, Con Edison can provide multiple feeder cables in each local network. This means service will not be interrupted even if two feeder cables fail. Most of New York City, including all of the major business areas in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx, has this double back-up - or double redundancy - in its electrical service.

over the last 10 years, Con Edison has spent an average of $640 million per year in maintenance, capital improvements and expansion of its transmission and distribution system. The underground Network System is monitored by devices attached to every transformer and switch, constantly feeding data to control centers where staff, using state-of-the-art computer systems, can anticipate problems before they occur and move immediately to prevent service interruptions.

In response to the Energy Committee, Con Edison has streamlined communications so financial services firms and other energy-critical customers are advised automatically within minutes of power flucturations and possible disruption in the power flow, so they can activate in-house safeguards, said Energy Committee member Deborah B. Beck, Executive Vice President of the Real Estate Board of New York. The utility also is working with computer and telecommunications customers on adding still another level of redundancy, Beck added.

"The energy of our people and the energy that serves them are critical resources if New York is to remain competitive. Those of us who are working to help New York prosper into the 21st Century must continue to monitor our utilities to ensure we provide the best service in the nation," said Building Congress Chairman John F. Hennessy. "I want to thank the members of the Energy Committee for their important work."

"While we undertook this evaluation because of our concerns about the reliability of electrical service, it is gratifying to find that our electrical transmission and distribution system is state of the art, setting the standard for utilities throughout the world," Rudin said. "We would urge government agencies to follow Con Edison's example in maintaining and upgrading infrastructure and providing the most reliable service in the nation. This is vital in retaining and attracting business and in improving the quality of life in our city."

"Year after year, Con Edison's electric distribution system provides New York City's business community an unmatched level of service," said Eugene R. Mc-Grath, Con Edison's chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "This reliability is a significant competitive advantage for the economy of our city and the more than 400,000 commercial and industrial customers we serve."

The Building Congress Energy Committee includes: Richard T. Anderson, President, New York Building Congress; Peter J. Brennan of Jobs for Energy and Independence; Robert Catell, President & CEO, Brooklyn Union Gas Co.; Peter L. DiCapua, Senior Vice President of ATCO Properties Management, Inc., and President of BOMA New York and Owner's Committee on Electric Rates; John Gilbert, Executive Vice President, Rudin Management Co.; William Harkins, Vice President of Planning, Consolidated Edison Co. of New York; Edward J. Malloy, President, Building & Construction Trades Council; Alton G. Marshall, President, Alton G. Marshall Assoc.; Eugene McGrath, Chairman, President and CEO, Consolidated Edison Company of NY; Bernard H. Mendik, Chairman, Real Estate Board of New York and Mendik Co.; Jack Rudin, Co-Chairman, Rudin Management Co., Inc.: Charles Schaffner formerly of Syska & Hennessy and Chair. NYBC; David Singelton, Senior Vice President, J.P. Morgan; Steve Spinola, President, Real Estate Board of New York; Joseph Strasburg, President, Rent Stabilization Association, and Barry Sullivan, President & CEO, New York City Partnership, Inc.