Back in 2007, Con Edison turned a 300‑million‑dollar investment into a brick‑clad façade that looked like a row of Bronx homes. The facility houses two substations that together can push 900 megawatts—enough to light roughly 900,000 households—according to Con Edison’s own calculations.
Today the city’s push toward electric vehicles and heat pumps has turned that capacity into a bottleneck. Con Edison identified 14 potential charging hotspots across its service area, and four—Zerega Avenue, Hunts Point, East New York, and Steinway—were deemed urgent by the company.
The commission’s June 2025 order will add a fifth 138/13 kV transformer and a new 138 kV feeder, further bolstering the substation’s 900 MW output.
Jameela Patel, a resident of the area, said her family’s power has never been as reliable. “The lights stay on, even at night,” she told a local news crew. Her story echoes that of dozens of residents who have felt the strain of a grid built for a different era.
Con Edison plans to finish the upgrade by spring 2026, a deadline that follows the NY Public Service Commission’s broader 29‑project “urgent” agenda. The company will use the same cost‑recovery model that funded the original 2007 build, with payments spread over 15 years.