![]() But most of the system is is buried…manholes are more just access points for equipment.” A lot of the system is remote monitored however, and a control center keeps tabs on the system 24/7. So if there’s a leak or something in the manhole, then most of the time we can get in there and just repair it in that manner. Cuomo says, “There’s only one way to access it and it’s by digging. In terms of maintenance, the only way to access the pipe system is by digging, like a lot of other utilities in New York City. So you can be getting steam from our East River station, or you can be getting steam for whatever other stations at any time of the day.”Ĭon Edison isn’t currently looking to extend the steam system but they are always looking to bring on more customers within the steam grid. There’s no specific plant that services a specific section of the city, the grid is fully interconnected. The system is a 105-mile long piping network interconnected grid so a customer can get steam from any one of our locations at any time. It is dispatched and released into the system. It’s monitored very closely by our control center and all control rooms at each location. ![]() That natural gas is burned, the water with pure H20 is heated, and it is heated to a certain pressure and temperature. We only use fuel oil in the dead of winter if there’s a natural gas shortage or emergency, otherwise we are natural gas all the time. Then that goes into either a boiler and one of our more traditional plants, or goes into our Co-Gen system… We add fuel (our fuel is 97% natural gas). It also requires far less equipment, so buildings that have limited basement space or value their basement space or want to reduce maintenance staff may opt for steam power.Įxplaining how a steam plant works, Cuomo says that at a basic level, “We bring in water. “ConEd steam service has the lowest carbon emissions intensity per unit of energy delivered compared to all other options available to the buildings of Manhattan,” says Cuomo, who explains that there has been increased interest in steam for environmental reasons in recent years.īesides being a cleaner form of energy, steam can also allow businesses such as hospitals to allocate traditional electric energy and add more MRI machines or live-saving equipment. A co-generation plant uses just one fuel source and produces both electricity and steam, making it a very efficient mode of energy production. Steam, which represents just a small single-digit percentage of Con Edison’s revenue, is produced in various steam plants as well as in co-generation plants, located inside privately and publicly owned buildings and complexes like One Bryant Park. This then gets transported into the Manhattan steam grid through a pipe under the East River. Although the system does not extend to Brooklyn, there is a co-generation plant at the Brooklyn Navy Yard from which Con Edison does buy steam. ![]() On the west side, it extends all the way to 96th Street and on the east side, it extends to 89th Street. It spreads north through Manhattan, and it goes on both sides of Central Park. New York City’s steam system starts in the Financial District, with the first steam plant located on the site of the current World Trade Center. Con Edison steam stacks in Greenwich Village. ![]() Steam rises naturally, so it enabled buildings to get heated without using additional energy to get the heat to rise up. “Essentially the steam system was born in the Battery of Manhattan and continued to grow upwards all the way to today,” says Cuomo. Andrews and others took the concept of district energy put forth by Holly and applied it to Manhattan. New York City was in the midst of the early skyscraper boom, and engineers were figuring out how to heat tall buildings. And one in particular, Wallace Andrews, took the idea and brought it to New York City.” And they started their own little distribution system in Lockport, New York…His invention got some of the investors and developers in New York City, and they went to visit him. When he tested some things out, and when he saw it was successful, he actually started heating his neighbors’ homes. Though New York City has the oldest and largest steam system in an American city, the technology actually started in Lockport, a town in northern New York north of Buffalo and east of Niagara Falls.Ĭuomo explains that an inventor and engineer named Birdsill Holly discovered in 1877 that he could “generate steam in his basement to heat his home. Cuomo tells us that this year marks the 139th birthday of the steam system in New York City, which was installed in March of 1882. Prior to Con Edison, he was a consulting engineer who designed building systems for heating, cooling and air conditioning. Frank Cuomo has been with the Con Edison steam operations for the past 11 years.
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