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NPEP Success Story: Con Edison Company of New York
Con Edison Company of New York Recovers and Recycles Over One Million Pounds of Lead
Consolidated Edison Company of New York (CECONY) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, INC (CEI) that delivers utility services (gas, electric, steam) to over 3 million customers throughout our service territory of New York City and Westchester County in New York. In 2007, CECONY delivered a record 62,591 GWh of electricity to its customers. CECONY pursues Environmental Excellence through its ISO 14001-certified Environmental Management System, and participates in numerous voluntary EPA pollution prevention programs including Waste Wise, SF6 Emission Reduction Partnership, and the Natural Gas STAR Program.
CECONY’s NPEP Goal
CECONY embarked on a multi-year project to remove our Paper Insulated Lead-Clad (PILC) type of primary electric feeder cable from the underground electric distribution system and replace it with a lead-free alternative. Twenty-seven percent of Con Edison of New York’s underground electric network is PILC. The removal of this cable not only removes lead from the underground network, it also removes PCBs that may be present in the PILC cable. PILC three-phase primary feeder cable consists of a copper conductor core surrounded by oil (which may contain Polychlorinated Biphenyls, PCB)-impregnated paper insulation, surrounded by lead sheathing, and covered by plastic. For each section of in-service PILC cable removed, CECONY will replace with a lead-free Solid Dielectric Cable in a one-for-one direct change-out.
After PILC has been removed from Service, CECONY will send the PILC to a recycling facility where the lead sheathing is separated from the copper conductor, oil-impregnated paper, and plastic covering. The sheathing, once cleaned and verified to be free of any contaminants, is then sold by the recycling facility as a commodity.
In 2007, we aimed to remove 1,600 sections of PILC cable. From previous estimates, we approximated that per section of PILC, there is 1,000 lbs. of encased lead sheathing. Accordingly, we estimated that in 2007, approximately 1.6 million lbs of lead contained within the PILC cables would be removed from service and sent to a recycling facility.
Source Reduction, Recycling, and Recovery Alternatives Considered
CECONY will replace in-service PILC cable with Solid Dielectric Cable (SDC). SDC is a copper conductor surrounded by ethylene propylene rubber or cross-linked polyethylene. SDC is considered a superior alternative to PILC in both environmental and electric distribution characteristics.
Hurdles Faced
A significant portion of the PILC cable is replaced during scheduled feeder outages. These feeders provide the electric power to our distribution networks through network transformers. Due to high seasonal demands for electricity by our customers it was sometimes difficult to schedule the feeder outages necessary to replace the PILC cable. To reach our replacement goals we have replaced additional sections of PILC cable whenever we respond to emergency feeder outages. If, for instance, a section of PILC cable fails in operation we replace the failed section and any additional PILC cable sections attached to the failure. This may increase our repair time but allows us to replace more sections of PILC cable.
Waste Minimization Results
In 2007, CECONY recovered and recycled over 3.7 million pounds of lead from the PILC cable removed. This is more than double our original goal, and shows that our efforts to remove PILC cable have been a great success in 2007. Since enrolling in NPEP in September 2007, CECONY recovered and recycled 2,786,234 million pounds of lead.
Lessons Learned
This project shows that through strategic planning, it is possible to identify and plan projects where mutually beneficial outcomes can take place. In this case, through the removal of PILC cable, we have shown that while eliminating a potential environmental hazard it is possible to maintain and improve the highest level of service to our customers.