Midsize Company of the Year Gold Winner, Con Edison Clean Energy Businesses, has three subsidiaries that develop, own, and operate renewable and energy infrastructure assets and provide energy-related products and services to customers.
Their goal is to grow renewable energy across the country by bringing greater economic value to the customer, higher income for their stakeholders, and increased sustainability and resiliency that benefits the regions they operate in.
“We’re part of an organization that’s nearly 200 years old, and we’ve got the financial wherewithal to handle projects that smaller developers might struggle with, or would have to obtain external financing to do,” says Mike Perna, Vice President, Marketing and Business Development. “We have a reputation as a company that gets things done when we say we will.”
Recent Company Milestones
John Schaaf, Managing Director, Con Edison Battery Storage, remarks, “Con Edison Clean Energy Businesses acquired a controlling interest in the battery storage business last year. We are now fully integrated into the business and are rapidly expanding.”
Schaaf adds, “We recently began construction on our first community solar plus storage project, which we anticipate is the first of several more to come.”
Trends for 2020
A natural integration of solar and storage. As battery prices (the majority of storage costs) continue to decline, battery performance and energy density overall is increasing. As that continues, Con Edison Clean Energy Businesses say that more and more market segments will open up — both geographically and with certain applications within the utility sector. “One of the roles of storage is to capture energy at certain times when it is being produced and hold onto it until demand is higher than supply. The strength of solar plus storage is going to propel the clean energy sector even further in coming years,” says Perna.
Increased business consolidation and standardization. The clean energy sector is still relatively nascent, with many enterprises vying for business. Mergers, acquisitions and/or attrition of smaller vendors will impact the competitive landscape, as will policy. Perna says, “We are seeing more standardization around storage technologies, which decreases costs. In addition, if the Investment Tax Credit for standalone storage passes, that would be a boost for the market — just as it has for solar over the last decade.”
Final Thoughts
Economics play a role as well in bringing value to the end customer. Schaaf concludes, “When you take storage and pair that with solar in many regions, you get greater efficiency, improved project operations, decreased costs – and that means value to the customer. The second area that delivers value is increased resiliency, and that throughput gives you greater utilization and resiliency for your asset. Con Edison Clean Energy Businesses will continue to focus on delivering value for our growing customer base.“