By Laila Kearney and Pranav Mathur
June 23 (Reuters) – Consolidated Edison CEO Tim Cawley, speaking at the Reuters Global Energy Forum in New York on Tuesday, said the utility must upsize parts of its grid equipment to withstand longer and hotter heat waves, while avoiding a fundamental overhaul of the system.
U.S. utilities have invested heavily to upgrade electric grids as they face extreme weather and growing demand from power-hungry data centers.
• “Long, deep heat waves wear on our equipment,” Cawley said. “So we’ve got to upsize the equipment sort of to meet that moment,” he added.
• Cawley added that New York does not need a fundamental grid overhaul, but should better use rooftop solar, batteries, demand response and grid data to improve efficiency and contain costs.
• He noted that while Con Edison is seeing increased demand from data centers, it is at around 60 megawatts, compared with the roughly 800-megawatt scale cited by some utilities, with electrification of transport and heating remaining the main drivers of load growth.
• He also backed utility-owned large-scale renewables, especially upstate projects linked by transmission to downstate demand centers.
• Cawley said artificial intelligence and enhanced real-time visibility into the grid could further improve operations. With more data from smart meters and system telemetry, the company can optimize voltage, reduce consumption, cut emissions and lower customer bills while maintaining reliability.
(Reporting by Laila Kearney in New York and Pranav Mathur in Bengaluru; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
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