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INTEROFFICE MEMORANDUM

Date: June 07, 2026
To: Jane Shin, Director of Strategic Planning
From: Operations Emergency Management Team (Ashfarin, Dimitri, Justina)
Subject:URGENT: Proposal to switchstrategic undergrounding priority to Queens

Yesterday, a fast-moving storm brought strong wind gusts to the New York tri-state area, downing Con Edison power distribution lines in Bayside, Douglaston, Jamaica and Little Neck and Maspeth. As of 3:30 PM today, restoration crews managed to restore power to approximately 14,000 customers and ongoing work is currently in progress to restore power to the remaining 5,200 affected by the storm.¹

The majority of the customers impacted by power outages due to the storm are based in Queens. Currently, Con Edison’s main planned investments in outer borough electrical infrastructure are focused on undergrounding electrical transmission and distribution lines in Staten Island (including parts of Travis, Fox Hills, and New Brighton), and Manhattan (power lines that go from Queens to Manhattan).²

The affected Queens neighborhoods are often hit by coastal storms and are candidates for strategic undergrounding. Given the increasing number of storm-related power outages concentrated in Queens over the past decade, and the mounting costs of repairing the overhead lines in this region, Con Edison should add Northeastern Queens to the areas scheduled for strategic undergrounding.

• The majority of customers without power due to yesterday’s storm are based in Queens

Internal reports show that the Queens area has been disproportionately affected. As of 3:30 PM today, there are 3,979 customers still without power in Queens, as compared to 264 in the Bronx, 129 in Brooklyn, 8 in Staten Island, 1 customer in Manhattan, and 794 in Westchester County.³ This storm highlights the vulnerability of our systems specifically in Bayside, Douglaston, Jamaica, Little Neck and Maspeth.

Increasing weather events over the past ten years have frequently brought down overhead power lines in Queens. The disproportionate strain that this storm placed on our Queens distribution network reinforces the need for Con Edison to begin moving up its timetable to underground powerlines in northeastern Queens.

Areas that are not eligible for undergrounding are the coastal districts and flood zones along the Jamaica Bay and Rockaway Peninsula, which will require us to explore alternatives to stormharden these areas.

• The costs of constant repair to overhead systems (and legal action) will outweigh implementation costs over time

Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of inclement weather and coastal storms, specifically, in New York. Our overhead power network is at risk of damage and accumulation of high repair costs. For example, Tropical Storm Isaias caused 257,000 outages in 2020 when high winds brought trees down onto overhead power lines, while Hurricane Sandy caused 1.1 million outages.⁴ The cost of repairing our network following Hurricane Sandy was estimated at $450 million.⁵ As a reminder, Con Edison has been found liable for $82.05 million ⁶ (in settlement fees alone) following the aftermath of Isaias. Severe storms are projected to continue increasing in frequency and severity, the cost of which will eventually exceed the $18.5 billion estimate⁷ provided for undergrounding the systems in 2013 (re: technical assessment by Clough Harbour & Associates LLP). The earlier undergrounding projects are implemented, the larger the lifetime cost savings for Con Edison.

Other areas in the Northeast have seen beneficial returns on undergrounding programs. A UMass study evaluated the aggressive co-undergrounding effort that was done in Shrewsbury over a period of 40 years.⁸ According to this study, costs incurred were $45.4 million, whereas avoided outage benefits came to $55.1 million, giving a total net gain of $9.7 million. When added to an estimated $1.5 million property value increase due to improved aesthetics and tourism, this gives a total net gain of $11.3 million. An updated study should be commissioned to see if Con Edison and its customers stand to benefit from similar returns over time.

• Pilot programs can be quickly assembled if based on our successful 2021 Juniper Valley Undergrounding Pilot (Middle Village)

Our 2021 “Juniper Valley Undergrounding Pilot” has been well received by local residents (Middle Village).⁹ Had similar work been undertaken in the aforementioned affected neighborhoods, these outages may have been entirely avoidable.

Additionally, survey results from the Edison Electrical Institute show that 60% of residents are willing to pay up to a 10% increase in their electrical bill at the most, although the cost of underground systems can cause their bills to more than double ¹⁰ (OLTPS, 2013). Similar surveys can be conducted to assess the willingness of these residents, and would inform the timeline of undergrounding cables in these areas.

In summary, the Operations Emergency Management Team recommends that Northeastern Queens be added to the areas scheduled for strategic undergrounding. This recommendation is based on internal data showing the concentration of storm-related power outages in Queens over the past decade, as well as the mounting costs of repairing the overhead lines in this region and costs of settling lawsuits that have ensued the last few major storms in the New York City region. The Operations Emergency Management Team also recommends that the framework put in place to launch the pilot program for the Middle Village area (Juniper Valley Undergrounding Pilot) serve as a blueprint for the proposal expansion of the strategic undergrounding in Bayside, Douglaston, Jamaica, Little Neck and Maspeth.

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1 Con Edison, “Con Edison Restoring Service Following Severe Storm,” press release, June 07,
2026, 03:30 PM.
2 “Borough Investments,” Con Edison. Accessed June 12, 2026.
3 Con Edison, “Con Edison Restoring Service Following Severe Storm.”
4 “NYC Hazard Mitigation Plan,” New York City Emergency Management. Accessed June 10, 2026.
5 Con Edison, “Hurricane Sandy Update: Con Edison’s Restorations On Track for Storm Customers”, press release, Nov 11, 2012.
6 NYS Department of Financial Services, “Governor Cuomo Announces $86.2 Million In Settlements With 4 Utilities for Failures Related To Power Outages and Emergency Response Including Tropical Storm Isaias,” press release, July 15, 2021.
7  New York City Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, Utilization of underground and overhead power lines in the City of New York, (City of New York, 2013).
8  Mahsa Arabi et al. “Benefits of aggressively co-undergrounding electric and broadband lines outweigh costs.” Cell Reports Sustainability 2, no. 3 (2025). 
9  Allie Griffin, “Con Edison to Move Power Lines in Middle Village Underground in $4 Million Pilot Program,” QNS, September 17, 2021.
10  Mahsa Arab New York City Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, Utilization of underground and overhead power lines in the City of New York.i et al. “Benefits of aggressively co-undergrounding electric and broadband lines outweigh costs.” Cell Reports Sustainability 2, no. 3 (2025). 

Bibliography

Arabi, Mahsa, Atanas Apostolov, Abhiraksha Pattabhiraman, Anna Goldstein, Michael Bloomberg, Jay Taneja, Erin Baker, and Jimi Oke. “Benefits of aggressively co-undergrounding electric and broadband lines outweigh costs.” Cell Reports Sustainability 2, no. 3 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crsus.2025.100334.

Con Edison. “Borough Investments.” Accessed June 12, 2026. https://www.coned.com/en/our-energy-future/our-energy-vision/where-we-are-going/reliable/borough.

Con Edison. “Con Edison Restoring Service Following Severe Storm.” Press release. June 07, 2026, 03:30 PM. https://www.coned.com/en/about-us/media-center/news/2026/06-07/con-edison-restoring-service-after-severe-storm.

Con Edison. “Hurricane Sandy Update: Con Edison’s Restorations On Track for Storm Customers.” Press release. Nov 11, 2012. https://conedison.gcs-web.com/news-releases/news-release-details/hurricane-sandy-update-con-edisons-restorations-track-storm.

Griffin, Allie. “Con Edison to Move Power Lines in Middle Village Underground in $4 Million Pilot Program.” QNS. September 17, 2021. https://qns.com/2021/09/con-edison-to-move-power-lines-in-middle-village-underground-in-4-million-pilot-program.

New York City Emergency Management. “NYC Hazard Mitigation Plan.” Accessed June 10, 2026. https://nychazardmitigation.com/documentation/hazard-profiles/coastal-storms/.

New York State Department of Financial Services. “Governor Cuomo Announces $86.2 Million In Settlements With 4 Utilities for Failures Related To Power Outages and Emergency Response Including Tropical Storm Isaias,” Press release. July 15, 2021. https://www.dfs.ny.gov/reports_and_publications/press_releases/pr202107151.

New York City Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability. Utilization of underground and overhead power lines in the City of New York. City of New York. 2013. https://www.nyc.gov/html/planyc2030/downloads/pdf/power_lines_study_2013.pdf.

Group contribution statement: All group members contributed to the research and writing of the memo and annotated bibliography. Justina proposed the topic, Dimitri researched the further refined the scope of the memo, Ashfarin compiled and formatted the proposal document. The summaries of the annotated bibliography were completed by Dimitri and Ashfarin. Justina revised, compiled and formatted the final version of the document.

AI Transparency Statement: ChatGPT was used by some of the team members to assist them in the research phase and to edit their contributions to the document.