How to Read Your Con Edison (ConEd) Bill
Con Edison delivers electricity and gas across New York City and Westchester County no matter who supplies your energy — and because New York is a deregulated market, you can buy the supply portion either from Con Edison directly or from a competitive ESCO. Your bill separates those two charges, plus Con Edison's own fixed fees and taxes.
Who Con Edison actually is on your bill
Con Edison (Consolidated Edison Company of New York) is the regulated utility that owns and maintains the wires and pipes delivering electricity and natural gas across New York City's five boroughs and Westchester County. It's also one of the few utilities in the country that runs a district steam system, serving parts of Manhattan directly with steam heat. Whatever your service, Con Edison is responsible for the physical delivery, meter reading, and outage response — that part of your bill never changes based on who supplies your energy.
Supply vs. delivery on a Con Edison bill
Like most bills in deregulated states, a Con Edison statement splits into two main pieces. Delivery charges cover Con Edison's own infrastructure and are regulated — the same for every customer on a given rate class regardless of supplier. Supply charges cover the actual electricity or gas you used, and this is the shoppable piece: you can either stay on Con Edison's own supply rate or sign up with a separate ESCO (Energy Service Company) that sells you energy at its own price, while Con Edison keeps delivering it and, in most cases, keeps billing you on the ESCO's behalf.
What an ESCO looks like on your statement
If you've signed up with a third-party ESCO, you'll see its name appear on your bill alongside Con Edison's, with the supply charge attributed to that ESCO rather than to Con Edison. If you haven't shopped, you're simply on Con Edison's own supply rate, sometimes labeled something like "full service" or the standard commodity rate. Neither choice changes who shows up if the power goes out — that's always Con Edison.
Fixed charges, riders, and taxes
Below the supply and delivery lines, Con Edison bills typically include a basic service or customer charge that applies every period regardless of usage, along with various riders that fund things like system benefit programs, and applicable New York State and city taxes. These tend to be smaller individually but add up, especially on a low-usage account.
Reading your usage history
Con Edison bills generally include a usage summary — your consumption for the current period compared to recent months or the same month a year ago. This is the fastest way to tell whether a bigger bill is a usage story (a hot or cold month) or a rate story (a supply or delivery rate change), and Con Edison's online account portal has a more detailed version if the paper bill's chart feels too compressed to read clearly.
Frequently asked questions
Does Con Edison sell me electricity, or just deliver it?
Both, depending on your choice. Con Edison always delivers your electricity and gas over its wires and pipes, but you can buy the actual energy either from Con Edison itself (utility supply) or from a separate ESCO you've signed up with — Con Edison still reads your meter and sends the bill either way.
What is an ESCO on a Con Edison bill?
An Energy Service Company — a competitive supplier you can choose instead of Con Edison's own supply rate. If you've signed up with one, your bill will show the ESCO's name and its supply charge alongside Con Edison's delivery charge.
Why is my Con Edison bill so much higher some months?
Usually a combination of higher usage (heating or cooling load) and rate changes on either the supply or delivery side. Comparing your current bill's usage and rate to the same month last year, both shown on the bill, is the fastest way to tell which one moved.
See this on your own bill
Upload your Con Edison bill and Certo reads it for you — a free bill health score, a plain-English breakdown, and whether your supply rate is competitive.
Want it tracked automatically every month?
Plus and Pro track bill history, flag rate hikes and unusual usage, and (on Pro) build a custom efficiency checklist and savings tracker — so you're not re-checking this by hand.