Con Ed ups green rewards as Indian Point shutdown looms

New York City landlords who cut their energy usage during peak summer hours will now rake in fatter financial rewards.

Con Edison, in conjunction with other energy service companies, is more than doubling the amount of cash incentives paid to landlords who cut back on the kilowatts.

By dimming lights, reducing heating and cooling and slashing energy usage from other building systems, a landlord can earn over $300,000 per megawatt from Con Ed’s revamped rewards program, along with inducements offered by other energy service companies. All told, the green is up 60 percent from the $190,000 in incentives offered energy-saving landlords last year.

The increased incentives come ahead of Indian Point Energy Center’s license expiration in 2016. The nuclear power plant, which Governor Andrew Cuomo said he would like to close, is located 40 miles up the Hudson River from Midtown and supplies roughly 20 percent of the city’s power. Ahead of the plant’s anticipated closing, the state aims to cut 100 megawatts of energy consumption among the city’s office buildings to see whether the Big Apple can be weaned off its dependence on the plant.

“These incentives that are being offered by Con Ed are unprecedented and are focused on the fact that Indian Point might be coming offline in the future,” Sky Filippi, an analyst at Con Edison Solutions, told Crain’s.

Con Ed will also reward building owners up to $800 for every kilowatt an energy-efficient building system saves — up from $200 in 2013. [Crain’s] — Julie Strickland