Life in New York is expensive, and everyone is talking about it. The issue of affordability shaped this year’s mayor’s race and will likely be at the core of next year’s race for governor. Fights over bus fares and housing costs are front page news.
The next big frontier? Electricity bills. Across New York, customers of Con Ed and other electric utilities have experienced a spike in energy bills, with more increases on the horizon.
Con Edison requested a hefty 11.4% increase for ratepayers for the coming year, on top of the already burdensome increases that were phased in since 2023. In other parts of the state, the state Public Service Commission recently authorized National Grid, Central Hudson, and other utilities to do the same.
The utilities themselves aren’t the only problem. The price of electricity is also going up because gas power plants charge sky-high prices at the times we need electricity the most. We pay exorbitant premiums for peaker plants to stay open all the time and provide expensive, dirty electricity for just a handful of days each year.
We have failed to invest in battery storage and distributed solar energy that could bring down costs for everyone. The status quo works just fine for a lot of companies; it just doesn’t work for utility customers.
If there’s one thing that my experience in New York politics has taught me, it’s this: if a group of New Yorkers wants to get its needs met, it has to get organized. Until we get organized to hold our elected leaders accountable, we won’t win the deep and lasting changes we need to get out of our electricity affordability crisis.
That’s why we are forming the Utility Customers Association, a grassroots organization of utility customers working to turn our frustration into political and policy change.
In the weeks since we launched our organization, I have seen how much hunger there is among frustrated utility customers for new ideas and for a new politics that can bring down prices. When I talk to people in parks in Brooklyn or in the farmers’ market in upstate Troy, people approach me to share horror stories of fighting incorrect overcharges, helping neighbors wade through utility bureaucracy and, always, scrambling to pay to keep the lights on.
We have let the situation spiral into today’s utility crisis because millions of frustrated customers have not been organized to win the change we need. We need a political counterweight to the utilities, to the gas companies, to the folks who use our money to hire expensive lobbyists to flood the Legislature and the Public Service Commission with their side of the story, drowning out the public interest and leaving utility customers holding the bill.
Here is one example of where utility customers’ voices are badly needed. Late last month, I attended a New York City Council public hearing about battery storage. The debate was fearmongering about batteries vs. climate activists pushing for clean energy. But lost in the debate was: who are these batteries for? Whose lives get better if New York City removes barriers to energy storage and invests in energy storage infrastructure? The answer: utility customers. Everyone paying a Con Ed bill. Us.
That is what we testified: that we, the utility customers, are the constituency for energy storage. We are also the constituency for Gov. Hochul to step in and reshape our state energy markets to make investments that will save us money over the long term: transmission, renewables generation, and battery storage.
We are the constituency for New York City to bulk purchase solar panels and batteries, and to identify thousands of places to put them, which will make electricity cheaper and cleaner for everyone. We know that there are solutions out there, and we are coming together to demand them.
Spiking utility prices are part of everyone’s experience, but the solutions are not yet at the heart of the political conversation. It’s time for us to change that.
Robbins is the co-founder and director of the Utility Customers Association.
