New Yorkers are likely to end up owing Con Edison back pay a few months into 2026.
That’s because the state Public Service Commission hasn’t yet formally approved the rate increases for gas and electric that state regulators and the utility worked out last November — even though they were meant to go into effect Jan. 1.
Bills for the first few months of 2026 will stay at the rates customers paid throughout 2025. But once new rates are in effect — about $4 more a month for electricity and $10.67 more for gas in the city — they’ll be retroactive to the start of the year, leaving customers on the hook for making Con Edison “whole.”
The last time the rate approval process, or rate case, went into overtime was 2023 — rates weren’t approved until that July. A rate increase that was supposed to be spread out over the entire year was spread out over just a few months instead, New York Focus reported at the time.
A procedural vote by the Public Service Commission last week lets Con Edison bill customers at the current rates though the end of February. A vote on the new rates hasn’t yet been set.
If the proposal is ultimately approved by the commission — which serves under the Department of Public Service, the regulatory agency that negotiated the rates — as expected, electricity delivery charges would rise 3.5% 2026, 3.2% for 2027 and 3.1% for 2028. Gas rates would rise 4.4% next year, 5.7% in 2027 and 5.6% in 2028.
State Sen. Shelley Mayer, one of the loudest voices against utility rate hikes in Albany, is sponsoring a bill that aims to limit how much utilities can collect retroactively. The bill would allow companies to recover 90% of the first two months of delay, and progressively less after that.
Ian Donaldson with the Public Law Utility Project, which supports the bill, said it would incentivize utility companies to move the process along faster by passing some of the risk of the delay onto them.
“They should share some of the risks of the rate case taking longer than under the statutory timeline,” he said. “We believe the customer should ultimately be held harmless.”
The latest proposal is significantly lower than one Con Edison put forth in January of this year, kicking off its rate case. The company originally wanted a one-time rate hike to take effect in 2026, which would have raised gas bills by an average of roughly 13% or $46.42 per month. Electric bills would have increased by about 19% or an additional $26.60 per month. After a barrage of mostly negative public comments — and pressure from public officials including Gov. Kathy Hochul — the utility and regulators lowered the request for additional gas revenue by about 60% and by about 34% for electricity.
Mayer said the new rates still aren’t low enough.
“For rate payers, it still is over time, over a three-year period, a substantial increase in the rates for electric and gas delivery. And to me it's unacceptable,” she said.
When Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and President Donald Trump had their surprisingly cordial face-to-face in November, they coalesced around a key area of agreement: saying Con Edison's rates are out of control.
“We have to get Con Edison to start lowering the rates,” the president said. Mamdani responded: "Absolutely."
After that meeting, a Con Edison spokesperson said the company welcomes the chance to work with Mamdani on making energy more affordable.
Several options are available for customers who have trouble paying their energy bills, including the Home Energy Assistance Program, or HEAP, which began taking applications in early December after a delay caused by the federal government shutdown. The benefit program pays for up to $996 in fuel or heating and cooling equipment. Emergency HEAP payments — to fix broken equipment and avoid a utility shutoff or running out of fuel — are scheduled to be available beginning on Jan. 2.
