Con Edison Raises Its Substation Plan to 28 by 2035 Inside a $37.2 Billion Distribution Buildout
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Marin Holt
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- 6 minutes read
- New substations by 2035: 28
- Prior plan earlier in 2026: 22
- Planned distribution investment: $37.2 billion
- Q2 2026 electric revenue: $3.13 billion
Consolidated Edison told investors on August 6, 2026 that it will put 28 new substations in service by 2035. The work spans its two electric utilities in New York and northern New Jersey. That figure sits inside roughly $37.2 billion of planned investment in the distribution networks of Consolidated Edison Company of New York and Orange & Rockland Utilities. Earlier in 2026 the company put the count at 22. Six more went onto the list in a single year.
What Is Being Built
The two utilities serve more than nine million people. Their territory covers the five boroughs of New York City, downstate New York counties and parts of northern New Jersey. Substations step transmission voltage down to distribution voltage. The count therefore tracks how much new load the company expects to connect, not how much power it expects to generate.
Con Edison points at electrification for the growth. New buildings in the CECONY territory ask for 25 percent more electric load than older buildings do. Local Law 97 in New York City requires a 40 percent cut in building greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The state targets net zero by 2050. Named projects on the connection list include a Major League Soccer stadium in Queens, upgrades at JFK Airport, and an all-electric food distribution center at Hunts Point. Utility programs also support more than 570 heavy-duty electric trucks and buses.
The money follows the load. Second-quarter electric revenue reached $3.13 billion, up from $2.78 billion a year earlier. That is a gain of more than 10 percent. Net income for common stock came in at $308 million, or $0.83 a share. A year earlier the utility reported $246 million and $0.68 a share.
“We plan to have 28 new substations in service by 2035, along with tens of billions of dollars in other capital investments,” said Kirk Andrews, senior vice president and chief financial officer.
Why It Matters
A substation count is the cleanest public read on where a dense urban grid runs out of headroom. Con Edison revised the number up by six inside one year. That says the load forecast moved faster than the capital plan did. Utilities across PJM and MISO show the same pattern. Here the driver is buildings and vehicles rather than data centers.
The bill lands on customers. Con Edison states that its capital plans through 2030 assume approval from the New York State Public Service Commission, both for the forecast investment and for the financing behind it. Substations enter rate base, and rate base earns a return. The 28 figure therefore reads as an ask as much as a plan.
None of the 28 sites has a public address, a cost or an in-service date. Con Edison reports 8.5 times fewer customer interruptions than the national average, and five times fewer interruption minutes. Those are the numbers the utility chose to publish about what the spending has bought so far. The real test arrives at the PSC, and in the rate cases that follow.
Critical Perspective
Con Edison moved its substation count from 22 to 28 in a single year without naming a site, a cost or an in-service date for any of them. Dominion and Exelon revised load forecasts on the same cadence and both landed in contested proceedings over who pays for the resulting rate base. Con Edison states its own plan through 2030 assumes the New York State Public Service Commission approves both the investment and the financing behind it, so the 28 figure is a request and not a commitment. If the forecast moves again next year, does the count go to 34, and does anyone test the forecast before $37.2 billion enters rate base?
Sources
- Con Edison Reports 2026 Second Quarter Earnings (PR Newswire, August 6, 2026)
- ConEd plans 28 new substations by 2035 (Utility Dive, August 12, 2026)
- ConEd plans 28 substations by 2035 (Transformer Magazine, August 13, 2026)
