Con Edison rates NYC 2026: supply, delivery and every line item

Consolidated Edison serves about 3.5 million electric customers across New York City and Westchester County. ConEd bills are notoriously complex because the company itemises every component the state requires it to disclose. This page walks through every line item, the typical dollar weight of each, and the cases where switching to the Smart Home Rate or shopping for an ESCO actually saves money.

Every line item on a ConEd bill, explained

ConEd residential bills break out the following components, in roughly this order: customer charge (a fixed monthly fee around $19, regardless of usage), supply charge (the cost of the actual energy at about 10 to 14 cents per kWh depending on month), delivery charge (the cost of moving that energy through ConEd's wires at about 9 to 12 cents per kWh), Monthly Adjustment Charge (MAC, a small true-up reconciling forecast versus actual costs), System Benefits Charge (SBC, funding state-mandated efficiency and renewable programs), Transition Adjustment (TVC, recovering specific past investments such as the Indian Point nuclear plant closure), merchant function charge (for the customer-account management), and state and city sales tax. The all-in result is about 24 cents per kWh on average.

Of those, only the supply charge is competitive (you can shop for it from an ESCO). The delivery, MAC, SBC, TVC, merchant function and customer charge are set by ConEd and approved by the NY PSC; you pay them regardless of who supplies your energy. Many ESCO shopping pitches show large savings on the supply component but the supply is only about 40 percent of the bill, so a 10 percent saving on supply translates to a 4 percent saving on the total. Always evaluate ESCO offers as total-bill changes, not supply-only changes.

The Smart Home Rate (time-of-use)

ConEd's Smart Home Rate is the residential time-of-use option, available to any household with a digital meter (which is now essentially all residential customers after the smart-meter rollout). Peak window: 8am to midnight weekdays in summer (June through September), 8am to midnight every day in winter. Off-peak: midnight to 8am every day. Supply rate on peak: about 25 cents per kWh; off-peak: about 12 cents.

For a household that can shift dishwashing, laundry and EV charging entirely to off-peak (midnight to 8am), the Smart Home Rate produces a meaningful savings versus the standard residential rate. For a typical 600 kWh per month household that successfully shifts 200 kWh per month into off-peak windows, the savings work out to about $25 per month or $300 per year. For households that cook dinner at 6pm and run laundry in the evening, the Smart Home Rate often costs slightly more than the standard rate because the peak-window usage is unavoidable.

Plug-In NYC for EV households

Plug-In NYC (formerly SmartCharge New York) is ConEd's EV charging incentive program. Participants install a participating Level 2 charger (most popular models qualify), enroll the charger in the ConEd portal, and grant ConEd permission to throttle or pause charging briefly during grid-stress events. In return, the participant receives a per-kWh bill credit for off-peak charging (typically 2 to 5 cents per kWh extra on top of the Smart Home Rate off-peak savings), an annual enrollment credit, and per-event participation credits.

Typical EV households earn $200 to $400 per year through Plug-In NYC, with negligible inconvenience (pause events are 15 to 30 minutes and the next-morning charge level is fine for the daily commute). For a household that drives 12,000 miles per year in a 30 kWh per 100 mile EV (so 3,000 kWh of charging annually), the program plus the Smart Home Rate off-peak charging combine to make EV fuel cost about $390 per year, compared to $480 on the standard ConEd rate or roughly $1,700 for an equivalent gas car at $4.25 per gallon and 30 mpg.

ESCO shopping in NYC: proceed with caution

New York's deregulated supply market has produced mixed outcomes for residential customers. The Attorney General's office has documented cases of ESCOs aggressively marketing variable-rate plans that ultimately cost households 10 to 30 percent more than ConEd's standard supply. After several enforcement actions, the NY PSC tightened consumer protections in 2020 and 2021: ESCOs must now disclose the full price (including all delivery and surcharge components) before enrollment, cannot mass-enroll customers without affirmative consent, and must offer at least one product that beats the ConEd standard offer.

If you do shop, follow three rules. First, only consider fixed-rate plans with explicit end dates and no auto-renewal to variable rates. Second, always compare against the current ConEd standard supply rate published on the bill, not against a marketing-pitch comparison rate. Third, never sign up at the door or on the phone to an unsolicited cold-call; legitimate ESCO offers can wait for you to evaluate them online. The NY PSC Power to Choose portal lists licensed ESCOs and their offers.

Why summer bills spike harder in NYC than the national average

New York City has a higher summer AC peak than most US cities because of two factors. First, the building stock is older and many apartments still rely on window units that are far less efficient than central AC; a 10,000 BTU window unit running 10 hours a day in July uses about 30 kWh, compared to 15 to 20 kWh for an equivalent central system. Second, the city's heat-island effect (concrete and asphalt re-radiating heat overnight) keeps nighttime temperatures elevated, so AC runs longer per day than in suburban areas.

ConEd applies a higher summer supply rate (the supply portion is about 25 percent higher in June through September than in winter) to reflect the cost of meeting summer peak load. For a household that uses 600 kWh per month year-round, the summer bill runs about 30 percent above the annual average; for households with heavy AC use that push monthly summer usage to 900 to 1,200 kWh, the summer bill can be 80 to 120 percent above the winter baseline. Shifting laundry, dishwashing and other discretionary loads to off-peak hours on the Smart Home Rate (or to overnight on the standard rate) compresses this seasonal spike.

The Energy Affordability Program and HEAP

New York's Energy Affordability Program (EAP) provides monthly bill credits to income-qualified ConEd residential customers, typically $20 to $90 per month depending on income tier and household size. Enrollment is via ConEd customer service or by being a HEAP (Home Energy Assistance Program) recipient; HEAP enrollment auto-triggers EAP enrollment. Eligibility uses state income limits that scale with household size and are updated annually.

HEAP itself provides one-time annual heating assistance (a grant of typically $400 to $900 for winter heating costs), with separate cooling assistance grants in summer for households with vulnerable members. HEAP is administered by the NY Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance through county social services offices; applications open in October and run through April or until funds are exhausted. The combination of EAP monthly credits and HEAP annual grants substantially reduces the energy burden for qualifying households.

Submetered buildings: a different rate structure

Roughly 250,000 NYC apartments are submetered, meaning the building owner buys electricity from ConEd at a master meter and resells it to individual apartments through internal sub-meters. The PSC regulates submetering: the per-kWh rate the building charges residents cannot exceed what ConEd would charge a residential customer for the same usage. In practice, submetered residents often pay slightly less than ConEd-direct residents because the building gets a bulk-purchase discount and is required to pass some of it through.

Submetered residents should verify they are not being overcharged: the building must provide a clear bill showing kWh and the rate per kWh, and the rate cannot exceed the comparable ConEd residential rate for the household's usage tier. The PSC takes submetering complaints seriously; submit through the state PSC consumer complaint portal if numbers do not check out. Submetered residents are also typically eligible for the same EAP and HEAP programs as ConEd-direct customers.

Sources and further reading

• ConEd bill explainer
• ConEd electric tariffs
• Plug-In NYC EV program
• NY PSC ESCO supplier search
• NY HEAP program
• New York state electricity cost page
• EV TOU rate plans across major utilities
• Low-income electricity assistance by state
• How we source these numbers

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