AGENCY TESTIMONY
Concerns about NYC electrical grid capacity
1:52:09
·
62 sec
Sarah Parker raises concerns about the capacity of New York City's electrical grid to handle increased demand from additional air conditioning, especially during peak summer months.
- Energy demand typically peaks during summer heat waves
- Utility companies have asked residents to limit energy consumption during heat waves to avoid outages
- There are incentive programs to reward reduced energy usage during summer daytime hours
- The goal of increasing AC usage conflicts with efforts to reduce summer electrical usage for grid stability
Sarah Parker
1:52:09
Adding air conditioners in summer months brings up questions around capacity of New York City's electrical grid.
1:52:16
Demand typically peaks during summer months during heat waves.
1:52:19
More cooling is needed and for longer periods of time.
1:52:23
Demand for energy usage is expected to grow year over year.
1:52:28
Utility companies have asked city residents to limit their energy consumption during summer heat waves to avoid outages.
1:52:36
In fact, many utility companies have billing incentive programs that reward residents to use less energy during summer daytime hours.
1:52:49
While these are good for the environment and the stability of the energy grid, we have messaging from utilities to reduce summer electrical usage, and this is working against the goal of this bill, which is to increase household's access and use of air conditioning.
1:53:06
Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
1:53:08
I'd be happy to discuss any of these topics in further detail.
