Litigation settlement, period

  
  
In October 2020, the NYSPSC issued an order instituting a proceeding to consider requiring NY’s large, investor-owned utilities, including CECONY and O&R, to annually disclose what risks climate change poses to their companies, investors and customers going forward. The order notes that some holding companies, including Con Edison, already disclose climate change risks at the holding company level, but states that the NYSPSC believes that climate-related risk disclosures should be issued specific to the operating companies in NY, such as CECONY and O&R, and that such climate-related risk disclosures should be included annually with the utilities’ financial reports. In December 2020, CECONY and O&R, along with other large NY utilities, filed comments supporting climate change risk disclosures in annual reports filed with the NYSPSC and recommended the use of an industry-specific template.   
In May 2020, the president of the United States issued the "Securing the United States Bulk-Power System" executive order, which has since expired. The executive order declared threats to the bulk-power system by foreign adversaries constitute a national emergency and prohibits the acquisition, importation, transfer or installation of certain bulk-power system electric equipment that is sourced from foreign adversaries. In April 2021, the Department of Energy (DOE) issued a request for information to assist the DOE in developing additional orders and/or regulations to secure the United States’ critical electric infrastructure. In September 2021, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the National Institute of Standards and Technology issued preliminary cybersecurity goals for critical infrastructure control systems, with final goals to be issued by September 2022. The Companies are unable to predict the impact on them of any orders or regulations that may be adopted regarding critical infrastructure.  
In July 2021, the NYSPSC approved a settlement agreement among CECONY, O&R and the NYSDPS that fully resolves all issues and allegations that have been raised or could have been raised by the NYSPSC against CECONY and O&R with respect to: (1) the July 2018 rupture of a CECONY steam main located on Fifth Avenue and 21st Street in Manhattan (the “2018 Steam Incident”); (2) the July 2019 electric service interruptions to approximately 72,000 CECONY customers on the west side of Manhattan and to approximately 30,000 CECONY customers primarily in the Flatbush area of Brooklyn (the “2019 Manhattan and Brooklyn Outages”); (3) the August 2020 electric service interruptions to approximately 330,000 CECONY customers and approximately 200,000 O&R customers following Tropical Storm Isaias (the “Tropical Storm Isaias Outages”) and (4) the August 2020 electric service interruptions to approximately 190,000 customers resulting from faults at CECONY’s Rainey substation following Tropical Storm Isaias (the “Rainey Outages”). Pursuant to the settlement agreement, CECONY and O&R agreed to a total settlement amount of $75.1 million and $7.0 million, respectively. CECONY and O&R agreed to forgo recovery from customers of $25 million and $2.5 million, respectively, associated with the return on existing storm hardening assets beginning with the next rate plan for each utility (over a period of 35 years). CECONY and O&R also agreed to incur ongoing operations and maintenance costs of up to $15.8 million and $2.9 million, respectively, for, among other things, costs to maintain a certain level of contractor and vehicle storm emergency support and storm preparation audits. For CECONY, the settlement agreement included previously incurred or accrued costs of $34.3 million, including negative revenue adjustments of $5 million for the Rainey Outages and $15 million for the 2019 Manhattan and Brooklyn Outages and $14.3 million in costs to reimburse customers for food and medicine spoilage and other previously incurred expenses related to Tropical Storm Isaias and the 2018 Steam Incident. For O&R, the settlement agreement included previously incurred costs of $1.6 million to reimburse customers for food and medicine spoilage and other expenses related to the Tropical Storm Isaias Outages.  
  
  
  
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