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Grid Rewards - Get Paid to Cut Your Electric Load!
Get Paid to Cut Your Electric Load!
For a few hours each summer, the electric grid may be stressed by high air conditioning loads or technical problems. In the past, Con Edison asked residents for voluntary (and unpaid) reductions in their power usage, e.g., delaying use of appliances (washers, dryers, dishwashers, etc.) or lowering air conditioner settings.
But now you can get paid for such actions. To get the most money, you must sign up before May 1, 2021.
There’s no fee, and enrolling also earns points for Cortlandt towards NY State grants that will be used on projects that help protect our community and the planet. Everybody wins!
Get Paid Like The Big Guys
For years, commercial and industrial power users have been paid for such “demand responses” (DR), even if no call ever came from Con Ed, merely for being enrolled in a DR program. Now, so can you!
This process has no downside: there’s no fee, no penalty if you do nothing, nobody will call you, and no equipment (other than a smartphone or PC) is needed. You can drop out any time with no penalty. Anyone with a Con Ed electric account can participate, even if you have solar panels, or subscribe to community solar.
New For 2021
Called “Grid Rewards”, this program is run by a Con Edison contractor (Logical Buildings, Inc.). It was pilot tested last year, and is now open to all Con Ed customers. It pays you two ways:
- reservation payments just for being enrolled (based on your last summer’s peak hourly usage)
- how much you reduce usage when called to do so (relative to your highest usage in the prior 30 days) between 4 PM and 8 PM on the same type of day (i.e., weekday or weekend day), adjusted for temperature. Again, there is no obligation to reduce usage; it’s purely voluntary.
Advance notice of an “event” is by text (or email, if you sign up from a PC), typically the night before by 7 PM, but it may also occur around 2 PM the same day, depending on the urgency to cut grid load. Even if you don’t respond, you still get the reservation payment. Several events may occur during a hot summer, but none may occur in a cool summer.
Most of the money comes from merely being enrolled. For a typical customer, the reservation payment for this summer may be $200 to $300. Payment for requested power reductions depends on how often they occur, and how much you cut usage during that 4-hour “event window”. For typical summers, that amount may be much less than the reservation payments.
Payment arrives in October, after the summer is over. Get it as either a digital check directly into your bank account or, if you request it in October, as a paper check that will be mailed to you. There’s no fee, so the program costs you nothing except the time to sign up.
How To Enroll For This Summer
Sign up by downloading Grid Rewards’ free smartphone app (for either Apple or Android phones) at www.getgridrewards.com. If you don’t have a smartphone, use you PC and fill out the form at:
Note: if you have not yet set up your Con Ed account online, that web page will ask you to do so. There’s no cost, but you’ll need to have an electric bill handy to copy some data (mainly the 15-digit account number).
Payments are highest if you sign up before May 1, and no payments will occur if you sign up after May 31. For more details, go to www.getgridrewards.com.
