New York State Electric & Gas and Rochester Gas and Electric achieve best reliability in five years

Ahead of planned $320 million infrastructure investments in New York this year, New York State Electric & Gas (NYSEG) and Rochester Gas and Electric (RG&E) – both subsidiaries of Avangrid, Inc. – recently announced their best reliability showings in five years.

In 2023, the two companies reported year-over-year improvements in both outage frequency and duration for their 1.9 million customers. Going forward, they intend to invest $38 million into resiliency projects this year, $35 million into automation and another more than $250 million to replace aging substation and overhead line equipment. Such work is critical, they argued, in the face of increasing dependency on electricity.

“With the increasingly intense and frequent storms in our region and growing electric demand, our customers deserve continued resiliency and improved reliability, and the $5.2 billion of investments approved in our latest rate case enable that forward momentum,” Pedro Azagra, CEO of Avangrid, said. “Enabling New York to have more reliable power, shorter or avoided outages, and new smart meter technology helps customers manage their energy costs; we will continue to invest to improve even more.”

Over the course of the coming year, the two companies will replace 45,000 old electric poles statewide. On top of this, NYSEG will resume tree trimming on a regular cycle and push forward with non-pipe and non-wire alternatives to traditional upgrades.