Consolidated Edison, Inc.

Hello, and thank you for joining us. I'm Jan Childress, Director of Investor Relations for Con Edison. We're happy to be here today for our 2024 Clean Energy Future presentation. This presentation includes information on Con Edison's strategy to achieve goals set forth in clean energy and climate-related laws and regulations, and contains forward-looking statements of future expectations and not facts that are intended to qualify for the safe harbor provisions of the federal securities laws. Actual results or developments might differ materially from those included in the forward-looking statements because of various factors identified in the presentation. Please note that there is an ask a question box right beneath the webcast player. Type in any questions you may have and click on the submit button. Type them in any time. I'll be monitoring them, and we'll cycle through the questions as we get to the end of the program. Now, it's my pleasure to turn this over to Con Edison's Chairman and CEO, Tim Cawley.

Thank you, Jan. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our annual webinar to hear about our strategy for achieving the clean energy future. I'm really happy to be here today to discuss the progress we continue to make and where we're going. Con Ed is among the nation's largest investor-owned utilities. Through Con Ed of New York and Orange and Rockland, we provide electric, gas, and steam service to millions of people in our region. Because we're in the city, most of our electric, gas, and steam systems are underground. We also operate the largest steam system in the US. And as you'll hear, that gives us some unique opportunities in the transition from fossil fuels. And Con Edison Transmission will help us deliver clean energy to customers in the Northeast. Not only that, we've been around for more than 200 years, and we're the longest continuously traded company on the New York Stock Exchange. At Con Edison, the tenets of our company culture remain very consistent. We work to maintain the safety of our employees and the public we serve every day. We value operational excellence, which shows up in our work and helps us earn our reputation for liability. We know our customers count on us and we work every day to maintain that trust. We invest in the customer experience. Earlier this year, we successfully deployed a new state of the art customer information system that dovetails with our smart meter deployment. This technology has significantly improved the way we interact with customers every day. ConEd's committed to excellence and equity across our company and across our service territory. We've developed meaningful diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, which help us attract and retain bright new talent that will have ConEdison grow for decades to come. And we focus on shareholders, prudently managing our company so that we deliver for our investors, including the thousands of retirees who maintain investments in our company and rely on Con Edison for safe, reliable performance. In all we do and everyone we serve, we remain intensely focused on leading the nation's energy sector. And we'll leverage these values to continue delivering a reliable, efficient, and equitable transition to a clean energy future. When we speak about reliability, we really are in a class by ourselves. We're ranked as the most reliable energy company in the U.S., serving one of the nation's largest economies, and we continue to improve. Connecticut of New York's electric delivery system is nine times more reliable than the national average. And in June, the Public Service Commission shared reliability performance results for the state. They found that based on our 2023 performance, a typical Con Edison of New York customer would go nine years without losing power. And that excludes the big storms that hit. This compares to about one outage every year for other utility customers in the state. The best-in-class reliability is critically important to our customers and our region, and that need will only intensify as we move to electrify transportation and heating. Our nearly 14,000 employees are working every day to help make sure our system remains safe and reliable. New York has among the country's most aggressive climate laws requiring a transition to zero emission electric grid by 2040. At the same time, our changing climate and more frequent and extreme weather events, both locally and across the globe, dictate the next stage of our evolution. We have a critical role to play to help meet these goals and challenges. For more than two centuries, we've been executing on sound infrastructure investments and delivering reliable energy to millions of customers. We have the experience and expertise to design, build, and operate the infrastructure required to meet this moment. We're thinking boldly about our energy system. We're expanding and modernizing our grid to accommodate new sources of renewable energy and handle increased demand as customers shift away from fossil fuels. And we continue to make our grid more reliable and resilient. We aim to usher in a clean energy future equitably and efficiently so every New Yorker can share in the benefit of a more sustainable grid. As you'll hear today, there is no single path to enabling the transition to a clean energy future. We're working on multiple fronts and the proactive investments in infrastructure and energy efficient solutions for customers will be driving factors in achieving the net zero goals. That means enabling change by driving growth in energy efficiency with innovative programs. It means implementing measures to help ease electric demand peaks, both in the summer and moving forward in the winter. We're working to make it easier to install charging infrastructure for EVs and support incentives for heat pump installations. We also plan to help transform supply and reduce the reliance on fossil fuels. We'll invest in transmission to interconnect renewable generation. We'll continue to implement energy storage solutions, and we'll advocate for utility ownership of large-scale renewable generation. As we proactively expand the grid and adopt new grid technologies to handle increased demand, we must also build in resiliency to climate change impacts. As you'll see, our approach to climate change is science-based, leading us to actionable solutions to mitigate the impact of extreme weather events. We won't sacrifice safety or reliability to meet growing demand. Resiliency is but one component of our approach to climate change mitigation. Our clean energy commitment is our guide for delivering the clean energy transition in an efficient and equitable manner. We've tailored our commitment to correspond to the goals set forth in New York State's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, or CLCPA, and related state and city policies, which Jen will cover in more detail in a few moments. Our clean energy commitment accordingly covers five main areas or pillars. We aim to build the grid of the future by investing in our infrastructure so that our system can reliably deliver clean energy for all our customers. empower our customers to meet their climate goals by leveraging incentive programs to electrify heating and transportation, reimagine our own gas system, focusing on transitioning customers to electrification and decarbonizing through advocating for investments in alternative fuels, Reduce our own carbon footprint, too, focusing on electrifying our own fleet and reducing emissions from operations. And finally, we remain committed to partnering with stakeholders, including our customers, the communities we serve, the advocates in the environmental justice community to help ensure the costs and benefits of the clean energy transition are borne equitably. We're very proud of this commitment, but prouder still of the progress we're making every day toward achieving it. Across the clean energy landscape, we are seeing real measurable results. These results are reverberating throughout our broad stakeholder base, resulting in cleaner air for customers, broader economic benefits for disadvantaged communities, and sustainable returns for our investors. I'm really excited that you joined us today and that the team will talk through the actions we've taken, the progress we're making, and our plans for the future. So now I'll turn it over to Jen Hensley, our Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs, to walk through some of that. It's all yours, Jen.

Thanks so much, Tim. Very happy to be here today. As Tim mentioned, New York State continues its strides toward the target spelled out in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, the CLCPA. New York has among the most ambitious climate goals in the country and the CLCPA sets aggressive targets. 40% emissions reductions across all sectors statewide by 2030 and net zero by 2050. Meeting these goals requires significant market transformation in all sectors, particularly in energy, buildings, and transportation. Continued policy action is necessary to achieve the level of change required. And achieving these goals would require reducing the use of natural gas, exploring new ways to use our gas infrastructure to serve customers' future needs, making the electric grid ready for increased electrification and clean energy resources, and working to reduce the carbon footprint of our steam system. Addressing customer costs, technical complexity, and regulatory and policy action will drive customer adoption levels. In addition, state policy requires that at least 35% with a goal of 40% of the benefits of the clean energy transition accrue to disadvantaged communities, including spending and resulting energy efficiencies, all contributing to more vibrant neighborhoods with cleaner, healthier air throughout our service territory. It has been nearly five years since the CLCPA was enacted in 2019, and we've seen progress, but there's still so much more to do. Overall, the state is more than halfway to the target of 70% electricity source from renewables. But in the downstate region, in the more densely populated service areas of Ciccone and O&R, natural gas remains the principal fuel source for electricity. And we'll need an all hands on deck approach to address this. This is one reason why we're advocating for the state's utilities to build renewable energy projects for customer benefit. We also believe it makes economic sense from a customer standpoint. New York City's density also poses unique challenges in terms of citing clean energy alternatives. For that reason, the state is turning to technologies such as offshore wind and battery storage to achieve its goals. Later in this presentation, you'll hear from Kirk Andrews about our approach to supporting offshore wind development. But transportation is another key area where we need to think outside the box, particularly when it comes to converting heavy duty vehicles to electric. The New York State Public Service Commission has initiated a proceeding on a proactive planning for electric infrastructure to meet the requirements of EVs and building electrification, where lead times needed for infrastructure are proving to be much shorter than previously anticipated. This new approach would represent a significant departure from the current infrastructure planning process. For example, the new process would allow for timely building of electric infrastructure to support EV chargers and commercial transportation hubs like Hunts Point or the MTA bus depots to get ahead of decisions to electrify fleets. Knowing that the infrastructure will be in place is a powerful inducement for fleet owners and buildings to electrify. The CLCPA is one of several laws that the state and local level aimed at the clean energy transition. Like the state, New York City has one of the most ambitious plans for reducing emissions in the nation. Local Law 154, which bans the installation of natural gas in new buildings in the city, with certain exceptions, took effect at the beginning of this year, and the ban for new larger buildings takes effect at the start of 2027. Separately in New York City, Local Law 97 requires most existing buildings over 25,000 square feet to meet certain new energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions limits by 2024, with stricter limits coming in 2030. The goal is to reduce the emissions produced by the city's largest buildings by 40% by 2030 and achieve net zero by 2050, while allowing for exceptions for certain businesses. And New York City Mayor Eric Adams' Plan YC Getting Sustainability Done plan lays out further strategies to reduce buildings emissions. Con Edison continues to publicly support the City of Yes policy initiative which will accelerate New York City's building decarbonization plans. And Tim mentioned our own climate change mitigation efforts. The city also has major initiatives underway to protect against coastal storms. In May, the city broke ground on the latest leg of this effort, the Battery Coastal Resilience Project, part of the Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency Strategy. New York State also has laws similar to the city's Local Law 154 that bans the use of fossil fuels in new buildings. The state law targets smaller buildings starting in 2026 and new larger buildings starting in 2029, two years later than the city's effective dates for each building classification. Clearly, our own clean energy commitment is in step with the goals of the city and the state, and it will take such a unified effort to accomplish the transition to a clean energy economy. Now I'm gonna pass it over to Matt Ketchke, president of Con Edison of New York, who will talk more about how research is informing our long-term planning as we build the grid of the future. Matt.

Thank you, Jen. And hello, everyone. It's nice to be with you all. In addition to a coordinated effort among state and local government, utilities and market participants, there will need to be changes in how our customers use energy to achieve New York's climate goals. In Con Edison's long range planning process, we have modeled pathways to a clean energy economy. Pathways that envision adoption of alternative energy solutions at varying levels. Our hybrid pathway shows electric system peak demand growing by 50% by 2050, offsetting a similar drop in the peak demand for natural gas. Our deep electrification pathway, the electric system peak demand doubles as electricity makes up 95% of the delivered energy by our utilities. At this early stage, customers in our service area are seeking new electric services that are more than 25% the capacity we have traditionally seen as more of their end use energy transitions to electric. More new buildings are opting for all electric or nearly all electric service, including larger buildings not yet restricted by city law. And increasingly, landlords are installing EV chargers in underground parking as perks to their residents. Con Edison's first responsibility is to our customers and to ensure that they have the power they need when they need it. And we take that responsibility seriously. We also understand that the best long-term option for the state is to address climate change directly through smart investment that mitigates future climate change while adapting to the current reality. New York needs to build more clean energy resources to allow for the retirement of high polluting fossil power plants. And we need to invest in research and development to help spur new technologies that will help deliver electricity 24-7. We need to accelerate the clean energy investments in the grid to help ensure an orderly transition away from fossil fire generation. There are legitimate reliability challenges that we are facing as we see fossil fuel generation come offline and demand for electricity growing. we need to do increasingly more to address these concerns. And we can't retire current resources until the new resources are available. Policymakers, utilities, and stakeholders must work together to find solutions to address these challenges. The increasing need for electricity has a corresponding need for us to invest in building new capacity on our systems. These new investments will include new substations to meet reliability needs. We plan to have eight new substations going into service over the next decade, as well as transmission upgrades and other incremental investments to accommodate new projects like Propel New York and Empire Wind. The expanding local economy is also contributing to our need to invest, including modernization projects underway at JFK International Airport and Penn Station, as well as EV charging installations across our service territory. The projects shown here do not include the projects that may result from the New York City public policy transmission needs solicitation. By 2026, our two utilities are expected to invest almost $5.9 billion annually in our three commodities as we adapt to the needs of a clean energy future. The pathways outlined in our long-range gas planning recognize the complexity of transitioning away from fossil fuel. The new paradigm dictates an expanded role for our electric grid. Across the state, New York will need to build more clean energy resources to allow for the retirement of higher polluting peaker plants, including battery storage to handle the intermittency of renewable resources like wind and solar. Those installations As natural gas use for buildings wanes, we will shift to a winter-peaking utility due to the multiple units of energy required to heat in the winter compared to cool in the summer. Kathy Bowden will delve more into this transition in a bit. For steam, we anticipate lower usage, but with some caveats worth mentioning here. Steam, under New York City's Local Law 97, is the lowest greenhouse gas-emitting energy source per unit of energy. We also aim to decarbonize steam production, including the cogeneration process that produces both electricity and the majority of the steam used by our customers. Successful decarbonization could potentially increase the demand for this efficient service. Looking at the clean energy transition across our systems, we will need to invest in research and development to spur new technologies that will help deliver safe and reliable electricity 24 seven. The New York Independent System Operator works along with the New York State Public Service Commission and NYSERDA, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, to identify and act upon elements necessary to meet the goals of the CLCPA. The New York Independent System Operator's role includes setting up the capacity requirements for utilities across the state to ensure safe and reliable service. The New York ISO is leading the public policy transmission needs solicitation in the street, including the New York City solicitation currently underway. The New York ISO's role in syncing with the goals of the CLCPA is also apparent with the postponement of the retirement of peakers serving New York City. The plants that fail to meet the Department of Environmental Conservation's emissions threshold will be allowed to run until the Champlain-Hudson Power Express transmission line goes into service, which is expected to be in 2026. Those installed electric capacity requirements apply across the state and specifically in certain zones are based on summer peaks. The New York ISO recognizes that as we transition away from fossil fuel, eventually those capacity requirements will shift to even higher winter peaks. We anticipate that that shift will occur sometime before 2040. And as wind, solar, and storage resources take more prominence in the capacity planning process, those resources will be properly rated in terms of their dispatch capabilities. As Jen mentioned, the clean energy transition is particularly challenging for the more densely populated downstate regions served by Ciccone and ONR, where approximately 70% of electricity we deliver is sourced from fossil fuels, most notably natural gas. The Champlain-Hudson Power Express is scheduled to be in service in 2026 and will import 1,250 megawatts of hydroelectric power into New York City during the summer months. but we need more clean energy resources, a lot more. And while we work with other parties toward that aim, we are ever mindful of the impacts that climate change is having on our systems and how to help mitigate those impacts. And now I'll hand it over to Michelle O'Connell, President and CEO of Orange and Rockman Utilities, who will walk us through some of our climate data and how we're investing in climate resilience.

Thanks, Matt. It's good to be here this morning. So much at stake in providing essential services to millions of people who rely on science to inform us about the impending impacts of climate change. Last year, Sukoni and ONR conducted a follow up to the landmark climate change vulnerability studies Sukoni completed in 2019. That study followed the unprecedented impacts of Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and the $1.1 billion of storm hardening investments that ensued. Working in collaboration with Columbia University and others, we localized the prevailing climate science to inform grid resiliency and adaptation plans that followed our studies. What the latest science told us is that the future climate change impacts are more severe than our 2019 study anticipated. The expected frequency and severity of extreme weather conditions in the form of heat waves, storms, and precipitation has risen despite climate change mitigation efforts here in New York and elsewhere in the world. And the sea level rise forecasted in 2019 is predicted to be even higher by 2015, 16 inches compared to our earlier forecast of nine inches. For context, over the 30 year period ending in 2019, sea level rise in our area rose only four inches. Our own engineers working again in collaboration with scientists have developed plans filed with the New York State Public Service Commission to fortify our grid in the face of the impacts we now foresee. Our resiliency plans call for $1.3 billion of investments over the next five years as part of a three-tiered action plan. Our plan involves prevention from flood prevention measures to constructing clean energy hubs, mitigation, combining selective undergrounding with deployment of sensors and switches to help prevent cascading outages, and response using smart technology for swifter emergency response when needed. This is a snapshot of the targeted investment ONR has proposed under the resiliency plan we have filed with the New York State Public Service Commission. Undergrounding and enhanced overhead systems represent the bulk of our $411 million investment over five years. Our longer-term outlook for both Saccone and ONR calls for $7.1 billion of resiliency investment over the 20-year period through 2044. These resiliency investments are part of a broader portfolio of investments we plan to make across Con Edison's three business lines to adhere to the core principles that Tim laid out. All three business lines, Soconi, ONR, and Con Edison Transmission are pointed in the same direction to help fulfill the promise of a clean energy future. As we integrate offshore wind and other renewables to the grid, we also continue to help enable energy storage. We have a total to date of more than 87 megawatts of third party owned storage across our service territory and more than 10 megawatts of utility owned storage. In addition, newly improved and tested third party owned energy storage units have been delivered to West West Warwick, New York, with units forecasted to be in service before the end of the fourth quarter 2024. While our business lines are strategically aligned, our transition to a clean energy economy involves partnering with many others, in particular our customers. Vicky Kuo, Senior Vice President of Customer Energy Solutions, will share how we're working to help meet their climate goals.

Vicky? Thanks, Michelle. Morning, everyone. With transportation and buildings representing the bulk greenhouse gas emissions in New York State, customer adoption of clean energy alternatives such as EVs and ground and air source heat pumps is a critical component in meeting state and local goals. In 2050, projections suggest that 90% of all vehicles are electric in the hybrid pathway and 95% of vehicles are electric in the deep electrification pathway. Both pathways will achieve CLCPA goals. On the building side, 45% of all space is heated with electric heat pumps in the hybrid pathway and 90% of space is heated by heat pumps in the deep electrification pathway. Both pathways will achieve CLCPA goals. We fully support New York State's goal that all passenger vehicles and light duties trucks sold by 2035 be zero emissions models. Looking beyond that marker, one million electric vehicle charges will be needed in our service territory to achieve New York State's climate goals by 2050. Our Power Ready program is supporting the installation of 23,000 charging plugs including 2,950 plugs in or near disadvantaged communities. Our residential managed charging program, Smart Charge New York, rewards drivers for charging during off-peak hours. Ciccone has enrolled over 19,500 vehicles, and ONR has enrolled another 3,300. Together, SACONI and ONR have over $800 million budgeted for infrastructure incentives, including the expanded light duty program Make Ready, medium and heavy duty pilots, and the new micro mobility program. Medium and heavy duty Make Ready programs targeting trucks and buses are part of the New York State Public Service Commission's current deliberations. Many of these fleets are situated in economically disadvantaged areas. As Jim mentioned, it's important for us to help lead the way to the era of electric transportation in our service territory. EV adoption is accelerating, and demand for chargers by customers and fleets alike means they expect to install chargers that are energized in weeks or months. while our infrastructure build out to serve them can take longer, often in years. This is where the New York State Public Service Commission's proceeding on proactive planning for electric infrastructure is so important. It allows us to make smart investments in our grid ahead of time, so we're ready to serve on customer's timeline. Further, early build out of our grid in disadvantaged communities who are often impacted by heavy trucking pollution and where many of our ride hail and taxi drivers live means we can intentionally expand the benefits of clean transportation to all communities without leaving anyone behind. New York City and New York State have begun the transition away from fossil fuels to electrification for buildings. With the city's restriction taking effect at the beginning of this year for smaller buildings, we're already seeing new buildings, both large and small, opting to go electric or nearly all electric. Air source heat pumps, a clean source of building heating, are catching hold as a viable alternative to fossil fuel heating systems. Between our two utilities, roughly 36,000 customers have converted to air source heat pumps since we launched the Clean Heat program. Air source heat pump have proven to be both economically feasible and an operational success in buildings. Even as we work with customers to electrify their buildings, their homes and businesses, we remain focused on energy efficiency programs to minimize usage and therefore emissions and to trim customer bills. In 2023, our energy efficiency programs at Ciccone and ONR supported customer upgrades that reduced electrical usage by 660,000 megawatt hours and saved about 1.8 million decatherms of gas. That's the equivalent of taking 82,000 cars off the road. Our work with St. John's University offers a nice illustration of the benefits of electrification. You can see clearly how energy savings are higher when builders can incorporate energy efficiency measures at the time of construction. St. John's energy savings range from 20% and 45% for existing structures to 80% savings for brand new 70,000 square foot health science center. In each case, we provide the customer with incentives that flow through our rate base. Minimizing customer bill impact is a critical component of our approach to the clean energy transition. The near-term costs of this transition to achieve savings over the long haul are nevertheless a challenge. We have programs in place that are designed to hold energy costs for our most vulnerable customers to 6% of their annual income on average. At Ciccone, this helps the roughly 15% of our customers who are in energy affordability programs. Compared to the national average, our rates per kilowatt hour are high, but total customer bills are below or near average due to lower than average consumption in the city. In addition to our energy affordability program and our energy efficiency initiatives, our smart meter programs and our new customer service systems are part of our commitment to helping minimize cost pressures on our customers. Company also continues to invest in non-wire solutions to help manage peak demand and create overall savings for customers. For example, non-wire solution demand reduction measures for Water Street area substation, including energy efficiency programs and battery energy storage projects, have yielded approximately 10 megawatt of customer-sided load relief. Our Brooklyn Queens demand management program has achieved a total of 61 megawatt in peak reduction. The Newtown non-wires portfolio has yielded 10.8 megawatt in load relief with an additional 10 megawatt in battery energy storage to be operational later this year. Under our filing with the New York State Public Service Commission, we aim to invest $2.8 billion from 2026 to 2030 to help customers reduce their building carbon emissions, focusing on deep energy efficiency upgrades, building electrification, and enabling the clean energy transition for low and moderate income customers. Clearly, as we focus on this transition, we remain cost-conscious. So far, we focused our attention on the electric side of our business, but another major part of our clean energy commitment involves our natural gas system. To discuss our approach, I introduced Kathy Bowden, Senior Vice President of Gas Operations at ComEdison.

Thank you, Vicki, and good morning, everyone. This graphic underscores the point Vicki was making that buildings and transportation, the blue and red colors respectively, are responsible for the bulk of New York State's greenhouse gas emissions. Fundamental changes are required to meet the state's interim goal of 40 percent reduction by 2030. and its long-term goal of 85% reduction by 2050 from 1990 levels. The shift to clean transportation and space heating alternatives is expected to first slow growth in our gas distribution business and ultimately shrink it substantially. Both utilities submitted gas distribution long range plans as required by the New York State Public Service Commission. And in those plans, we laid out three pathways, the base or reference case, and two scenarios that each are expected to get us to the state's 2050 target. While city and state restrictions on fossil fuels for new buildings will go far toward these goals, a major challenge remains for us in the form of older high rise buildings that currently use natural gas or number two fuel oil. Electrifying those buildings will be cost prohibitive, if not impractical. And the alternative is to develop low and zero carbon gaseous alternatives that can use our existing infrastructure. And to do this, we must continue to replace the pipe on our system to eliminate leaks, which provides increased safety while also reducing the emissions of our system footprint. Ciccone and ONR serve 1.2 million gas customers and 4 million electric customers. And the implication here is that there are nearly 3 million customers that are served by another gas distribution company or heat with another fossil fuel. As these overlapping customers move off fossil fuels, the net effect on our companies is positive. Customers electrifying their space heating will become bigger users of the electric grid. And we expect firm customer gas volume on our system to shrink as existing gas customers migrate to electricity. And by 2040, we expect to be a winter peaking utility. We focus on peak as opposed to volumetric sales because we have revenue decoupling in both gas and electric in New York State, and because the peak usage drives the capital investment. We'll seek regulatory and policy changes to address necessary future investments in the gas system for safety and reliability. And those ongoing investments include our main replacement program and other projects to reduce fugitive methane emissions across the natural gas production through delivery value chain. Our gas utilities plan to petition to fully recover the investments made to date and to attract the capital necessary to continue to operate effectively while customers are still connected. And now we'll move on to our steam system and other company programs. And I'll turn it over to Steve Parisi, our Senior Vice President of Central Operations.

Thank you, Kathy. One of the five pillars of our clean energy commitment that Tim outlined earlier is to reduce our company's carbon footprint. We're aiming for zero direct greenhouse gas emissions, scope one emissions for company owned electric generating units on our steam system by 2040. And we're aiming for overall net zero scope one emissions from our operations by 2050 in support of New York State's climate goals. As for year end 2023, we have reduced our scope one emissions by more than 54% since 2005. But the steam system represents about 85% of the remaining scope one emissions. So our path forward clearly involves decarbonizing this system that serves many of the system's most iconic buildings, the Empire State Building, Grand Central Station, the Guggenheim Museum, just to name a few. We estimate investment of about 1.5 billion over the next decade to meet our goals. Our three-year rate plan for steam went into effect last November, and the plan provides preliminary funding for a number of initiatives. One decarbonization demonstration project involves an industrial heat pump that would use heat from the East River to inject thermal energy into our steam system, and it would be one of the largest heat pumps in the world. Another demonstration project involves a district hot water loop that would use waste energy from an existing steam customer to provide thermal energy to neighboring buildings, helping them to eliminate their use of fossil fuels. It's a strategy that's currently being used in various systems in Europe and can be adapted for use in our steam system. One of the studies authorized in our rate plan examines building electrification from the customer standpoint, including engineering and costs. Our team of staff and consultants will visit 10 steam customers to conduct comparative analysis that will help us chart the most cost-effective approaches to decarbonizing each customer, even as we decarbonize the source fuels for our steam production. The second study is focused on our own production facilities. Our steam decarbonization study began during the first quarter of this year and is expected to be completed by year end. The team working on this study will help establish the roadmap to reducing the carbon intensity of our system and improving our Local Law 97 coefficient or carbon dioxide content on behalf of our customers. Vicky talked about our electric vehicle make ready program, and we are also committed to electrifying our own fleet. Through the second quarter of this year, we've added 245 electrified vehicles to our fleet, making nearly one third of our light duty fleet electrified. Our specific goals are aimed at our light duty fleet, but we're also focused on our medium and heavy duty vehicles. Joining the electric bucket truck we added last year, this year we introduced our first fully electric class eight tractor into the fleet. And we've procured our first fully electric heavy duty crane truck. So we are making progress in reducing our scope one emissions. So far, I hope we have given you an idea of how complicated, challenging, and exciting it is to work with our many varied stakeholders in pursuit of the state's and city's clean energy goals. Bob Sanchez, President of Shared Services, will now talk about recruiting and retaining the workforce to help accomplish our goals.

Thank you, Steve, and good morning, all. It's taken a constant replenishment of talent, new ideas, and enthusiasm to have kept New York City and our service area energized for over 200 years. Now we're facing a new paradigm in the energy delivery, and we're going to continue to augment and train our workforce accordingly. Operating a safe and reliable energy system requires a diversity of skills and backgrounds, all coming together to enhance the customer experience. Fortunately for Con Edison, New York City is one of the most attractive cities in the world, and our service area draws in students and families. It's naturally becoming a hotspot for potential employees as well. This influx of talent is an advantage for us, providing a rich pool of candidates to support our business. Last year, we tapped into the pool of candidates and hired over 1,600 new employees, the most hiring that we've done in a single year since 1973. Notably, that number includes a record number of women. In addition, more than 9,000 employees have attended leadership and career training that included nearly 700,000 hours of instructions. As a key partner in achieving the state's clean energy goals, Con Edison believes every New Yorker should be able to share in the benefits of the clean energy transition. That's why we're supporting New York's green economy and sustainable energy sector by investing in programs that equip diverse students with the skills and competencies that will lead to sustainable, well-paying careers in the clean energy and technology fields. Happy to share that earlier this year, we hosted an event at our learning center in Long Island City, where we awarded more than $4 million in grants to local nonprofits to train more than 1,200 participants from underserved communities for careers in the clean energy future. We are so proud to be part of developing our future leaders in the clean energy space. New York City is one of the most urban areas in the world with a rich blend of cultures, languages, identities, and heritages. Drawing from this wealth and directing it towards the company's common goals is the spirit behind our 14-point action plan. We have more than 5,000 employees, that's a third of our workforce, actively involved in our company's resource groups in that maintaining a dynamic and energetic workforce. We foster an environment where each and every employee can bring their unique and authentic self to work each day. That makes us a better company. As a rich environment for learning, our service area draws a lot of new businesses. We take a proactive approach to developing relationship with our suppliers, which includes reaching out to small businesses that are so vital to our communities. In 2023, small businesses supplied our company with over $700 million in goods and services, and we're looking to grow that relationship. We also aim to manage and expose and mitigate risk from third parties with a rigorous approach to identifying, scoring, and monitoring potential issues from external partners. Introduced in August of 2023, our enterprise-wide third-party risk management program includes risk and due diligence assessments. And all new and existing suppliers must undergo the assessment before being awarded a contract. These efforts help to ensure that we're going to be meeting the needs of our customers. And now, Venetia Lannan, Vice President of Environmental Health and Safety, will discuss how we work with our stakeholders to improve the quality of life in the neighborhoods and the communities we serve. Venetia?

Thank you, Bob. Good morning, all. So bringing diverse points of view together, as Bob outlined, broadens our perspective as we strive to enhance our customers' experience. In that vein, we continue to engage environmental justice advocates to build bridges within disadvantaged communities and strengthen our efforts to provide equitable distribution of benefits when designing programs and implementing projects. Our updated Climate Change Vulnerability Study includes a new section that maps disadvantaged communities and addresses related equity issues. Understanding how our work impacts disadvantaged communities is consistent with the tenets of the state's climate goals. The CLCPA mandates that disadvantaged communities receive at least 35% of benefits of spending on clean energy and energy efficiency, and the ultimate goal is 40%. We've gone further in our determination to address economic inequities. During the second quarter of 2024, the company completed its inaugural disadvantaged communities report, which was required in Ciccone's rate plan. We're walking the talk. When we're in the final decision stages of our first social justice philanthropic grants process and our company's environmental justice working group recently engaged leading academic, governmental, and nonprofit environmental justice practitioners in in a strategic issue seminar to ensure our employees understand the context in this rapidly evolving space. Consistent with our approach across the board, we are engaging our stakeholders and bringing in expert and diverse points of view to help shape a response to climate change that is both effective and equitable. Staying in this fight to stem climate change and its impacts requires a strong financial foundation. It's only appropriate then that I turn over now to Kirk Andrews, Senior Vice President and CFO.

Thank you, Venetia. As the newest member of the senior management team, I look forward to building on the strong foundations of financial discipline and transparent disclosure Con Edison is known for among our investors. Maintaining our financial strength is essential as we continue to ensure the reliability and resiliency of our grid while making the investments necessary to enable the clean energy transition here in New York. We are transitioning in a vibrant economy. where private sector jobs in New York City, for instance, reached another all time high at the end of July. The broader New York City metropolitan area has led all metro areas in the nation in terms of job growth over the past year. So even while we invest in the clean energy transition, we must continue to grow our electric system to meet reliability. The infrastructure investment necessary to meet our customers' needs and to help carry out the state's clean energy agenda is contributing to a growing rate base that will need to be financed. Underpinning our financing is a strong, simplified balance sheet. We have no long-term parent company debt and prefer to raise debt capital at the operating companies where infrastructure investments are made. Our consistent focus on shareholder value is behind 50 straight years of dividend increases, a record unmatched among utilities in the S&P 500. Con Edison's value extends beyond our customers and our investors and reaches deep into our broader community. We deliver energy to New York City, Westchester, and the counties of Orange and Rockland, And we believe the highest and provide the highest electric reliability in the United States safely and reliably moving North Americans largest mass transit system, illuminating Times Square and bringing water to residents in high rise buildings. We are a job creator, hiring our largest number of new employees in 2023. and our capital investments lead to an economic multiplier effect including contract spending that reaches large and small businesses within our communities it surprises most people to learn that we contribute more than 3 billion in taxes to new york city the taxes we pay represent the largest source of private revenue for the city our capital invest Investment is critical to maintaining safe and economic vitality of our region and the level of enabling investment required will continue to grow through the clean energy transition. We forecast $28 billion in needed infrastructure investment across our three business units over the five year period ending in 2028. These investments include core service investments for safety and reliability, climate resilience investments guided by our science and clean energy investments to support the state's goal of 100% zero-emission electricity by 2040. As Matt mentioned earlier, the lion's share of these investments will be through our New York utilities, where we will finance our ongoing investment in accordance with the 48% equity ratio authorized in our rate plans through the New York State Public Service Commission. Finally, Con Edison Transmission, regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, is also investing in the region's energy transition. As part of New York Transco, Con Edison Transmission and its partners have completed two important projects in New York State, the latest being the New York Energy Solution Project that helps remove transmission bottlenecks and connects upstate renewable energy to downstate customers. New York Transco was also selected to develop a transmission solution for Long Island that will allow the import and export of power across Long Island to New York City and the rest of the state. This project called Propel New York will improve the reliability and resilience of the Long Island transmission network and can provide an interconnection point for up to three Additionally, in June of this year, Con Edison Transmission, through its New York Transco partnership, submitted multiple electric transmission proposals to the New York Independent System Operator in response to the New York City public policy transmission needs solicitation to deliver offshore wind energy to New York City. CET is also participating in regional solicitations aimed at the clean energy transition, recently joining with National Grid in a proposal to build a transmission Backbone in New Jersey to help deliver a program back to Tim Cawley for his closing remarks.

Thank you, Kirk. And my thanks to the entire team. Quite a tour this morning. And thanks all for listening in. So the transition we're undergoing is a total effort across our business lines. We've accomplished a lot since the state began to take shape in its policy under the New York Public Service Commission's reform policy. To meet those important goals, we have a ton of work ahead of us, and we have and will continue to need top-notch people to get us there. And we have the people, the skills in our workforce, and on the governance side. Our board of directors has a strong and compelling blend of diversity, tenure, and skills, and we leverage their experience to improve our operations, set leadership standards, and implement best practices. Bob talked about open communication. We have that at the board level as well, and we're a stronger company as a result of it. Our most rewarding rewards are daily, cleaner air, reliable service, employees arriving home safe and healthy at the end of each workday and enriched for having contributed to the essential work that we do. This is what we strive for. Along the way, it's gratifying to see the work of our 14,000 plus employees recognized by others who in their own way are trying to shape a healthier, safer, and more equitable world. Our awards range from achievements and reliability to building an equitable workforce. We're also proud of achieving perfect scores three years in a row in the CPA Zicklin Index for corporate political disclosure and accountability. As part of the transparency that Kirk alluded to, we've been proactively engaging with corporate governance officials since 2011 to strengthen those disclosures, and we'll continue to do that. We're proud of these recognitions and prouder still of the work they represent. So we can't accomplish this mission set out for us without the confidence of investors who hold our stock and invest in bonds. All that we've presented to you today ties into the investment thesis for Con Edison. Quite simply, we offer investors sound governance and management practices, as well as strong succession planning that have contributed to 50 straight years of dividend increases. Target investments in grid resiliency since 2014 to help protect our systems against the onslaught of extreme weather events. A science-based approach to climate vulnerabilities that informs our investments through periodic localized studies. Our commitment to a clean energy economy that is in step with state regulators in New York and New Jersey. A transparent New York regulatory environment that provides reconciliation of major costs like pensions and current recovery of the investments necessary to maintain safe, reliable system as we transition to clean energy. Revenue certainty through revenue decoupling and weather normalization in steam at our New York utilities. and sound financial management that Kirk has mentioned that provides a simplified balance sheet with no long-term parent company debt. We're a pure transmission and distribution company dedicated to our customers, our employees, our investors, and the broader communities that we serve. We feel our track record makes Con Edison a bellwether holding for any equity or debt investor seeking a steady and reliable investment that can endure the changing and challenging times ahead. Thank you all for spending your valuable time with us this morning. And Jan, I'll field questions if you have any.

Certainly, Tim. The first question relates to the groundbreaking that you attended recently for Idlewild. And the question is, can you tell us a little bit more about that project?

Yeah, so the Iowa Wild substation, a $1.2 billion investment, and it's really a great example of the transition that we're going through, Jan. So this is in southeastern Queens, and the demand in southeastern Queens has grown. We had anticipated building a new substation in that area in the early 2030s, but when we saw the demand forecast come in, and I'll talk about the drivers of those in a minute, we had to accelerate and pull that investment in the substation up. So again, a $1.2 billion investment and it'll serve growing demand at JFK Airport. If you've been down there, they're doing a lot of work and they'll electrify a lot of their baggage handling and infrastructure. So that demand will go along with the fleets that serve the taxis and the fleets that serve passengers at JFK. In addition, the MTA has an ambitious goal to electrify their buses. And so that substation capacity will be used to power a charging facility for the MTA bus depot. And then finally, in the neighborhood in the area, more and more of our customers are transitioning to EVs for their driving and electrification of heating, moving away from natural gas and fossil fuels. And that's bringing the demand up. So we did a ribbon cutting with a lot of the community officials the other day. And one of the key factors here, a number of my colleagues talked about it, we're really bringing everyone along. We're engaged with small and minority and women-owned businesses to bring some of the investment that will happen at the substation into the neighborhood. We're engaging with them and sharing what this thing will look like and what its purpose is to make sure they're part of the process. and that we can field questions. So I think it's about community engagement, making sure no one gets left behind, and providing for the capacity needed to meet the electrification of the future. So a really great event. Thanks for asking, Jan.

You're welcome. Tim, the next question relates to something that Matt mentioned, and that was the New York City public policy transmission need. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Sure. The New York Public Service Commission kicks off a process to look at what transmission will be needed in the state. And then the New York ISO, the independent system operator, runs that process. And this solicitation looks to assist with the offshore wind ambitions of New York State. 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind are on the table in the near future. And what this does is provide a transmission corridor from offshore, about 40 miles out, where converter stations will sit, transmission to move 4.7 to 8 gigawatts of energy into the very mature Ciccone electric grid. And so New York Transco has put a bid on that and ConEd Transmission, under Sunak Niasse's leadership, is part of New York Transco. So we put a bid in for the 4.78 gigawatts and several other bidders did as well. The New York ISO will evaluate the adequacy and sufficiency of those solicitations by year end with the expectation by the middle of next year to make an award. And so Con Ed transmission's in play for that major corridor of transmission. And then Ciccone, under Matt Ketzke's shop, will likely have some upgrades on the grid to receive that power and get it out to our customers. So a really ambitious program. And the premise of this, Jan, is really rather than build 1,000 megawatts of offshore wind and bring it in on a lead, Better to plan in an integrated way, and that's what this big transmission corridor is all about. So exciting times. It'll complement, propel that Transco's already building to move offshore wind across Long Island into the rest of the state. So we'll be busy. I think Matt had a slide up there with all the substations we're building, and this PPDN would be additive to what he showed, depending on the outcome.

Great. Thank you. And Tim, that brings us right up against our timeframe. So that's a wrap.

Thanks so much, Jan. My thanks to the team. Really appreciate you taking the group through it. And for all who listened in, I appreciate we took an hour of your valuable time. Hopefully we got across some key concepts. I think it's clear to you we're super excited about our future. We think we're well lined up to bring much success to the communities we serve, to our employees and to our shareholders. And so never been more exciting. Thank you.