Three Con Edison employees have won prestigious awards from the energy industry’s top research organization for a study into options for heating buildings with electricity and moving them off of fossil fuels.
The research fits perfectly with Con Edison’s Clean Energy Commitment to help achieve New York State’s climate and renewable energy goals. Heating buildings with electricity, as opposed to fuels like oil, natural gas or propane, is essential to creating a low-carbon future equitably and efficiently with every New Yorker sharing in the benefits.
The members of the team that worked on the clean heat project are among 10 Con Edison employees who won Technology Transfer Awards from the Electric Power Research Institute, or EPRI.
The group that studied building electrification included: Shuchita Prakash, a director in the company’s Strategic Planning group; Sarah Murphy, an analyst in Strategic Planning; and Terrell Skipper, strategy manager in Customer Clean Energy Programs.
“Our great workers apply their expertise and curiosity every day to come up with new strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and ensure a safe, sustainable region and planet for generations to come,” said Matthew Ketschke, the president of Con Edison. “We are proud to see their contributions earn recognition from EPRI, the pre-eminent organization when it comes to energy research.”
The study, “Assessment of Building Electrification Technologies for New York State,” published in May 2023, examined the effectiveness of the technologies landlords and owners can use to heat their buildings with electricity. The study looked at each technology’s effectiveness when it comes to reducing emissions, the economics of the technologies and their impact on the state’s electricity needs.
Con Edison offers customers incentives for switching to geothermal and air-source heat pumps for their space heating.
Geothermal heat pumps rely on the constant underground temperatures to heat and cool a building. The systems transfer heat inside during cold winter months and then remove heat during summer.
Air-source heat pumps move heat from inside a building to the outside like an air conditioner. In winter, they pull heat from outside and bring it into a building.
The other Con Edison Technology Transfer Award winners are:
- Jade Wong, project manager in Research and Development. She was part of a team whose research will help ensure that utilities get the greatest benefit from transmission lines without affecting reliability or safety and while complying with new federal regulations.
Transmission lines carry power long distances and feed it into utilities’ local distribution systems like Con Edison’s in New York City and Westchester County.
- Brenda Hill, project specialist in Research and Development; Prakash Kothari, a department manager in Environment and Sustainability; and Steve Labudzinski, also a project specialist in Research and Development.
They were part of a team that developed and tested a battery-operated tool utility workers can use to remove manhole covers. EPRI said the tool could “have a dramatic impact in reducing ergonomic risk” for workers who remove covers, which can weigh up to 300 pounds.
- Richard Alcalde, technical specialist in Corporate Security; Serena Lee, project manager in Research and Development; and Piotr Lisowski, senior specialist in Corporate Security.
The team developed and tested technology that collects in-depth forensic data about certain utility equipment that the utility can use after a cyberattack to determine whether the equipment was compromised.
Con Edison’s showing in this year’s awards continues the company’s long-standing success in earning recognition from EPRI. The company and its employees regularly win multiple Technology Transfer Awards.
