Homeowners in Westchester County and New York City are feeling the burn once again after ConEdison announced another series of electricity rate increases. While the headline may sound familiar, the impact is anything but small. Electricity rates in New York have more than doubled over the last ten years, and the trend shows no signs of slowing down.
Most homeowners saw the recent announcement and moved on with their day. When you can’t choose your power company, rate hikes start to feel like an unavoidable part of life. Over time, people adjust their budgets, complain about the bill, and keep paying it because there doesn’t seem to be another option.
But this announcement was not just another routine adjustment.It continues a long-term pattern that has quietly added to household expenses year after year. For homeowners who pay attention to where their money goes each month, this matters far more than it may seem at first glance.
What Did Con Edison Actually Approve?
ConEdison recently received approval for a multi-year rate plan that will begin impacting customers in 2026. Rather than a single increase, the plan introduces a series of scheduled adjustments spread across multiple years. On paper, each individual increase may appear insignificant, especially when presented as a small percentage.
The issue is not any one year on its own. The issue is how these increases stack.
Once a higher rate is approved, it does not reset or roll back. It becomes the new baseline for the next increase. That means customers are not just paying 3% more. They’re paying 3% more on top of an already higher rate. Over time, that compounds.
For the average household, this means electric bills will continue to rise even if usage stays the same. Because the increases are gradual, most homeowners barely notice the change year to year. But that slow creep is 100% by design and it’s why the impact often goes unnoticed until the bill feels unmanageable.
Here’s what has been approved:
- 2026: 3.5% increase in electric rates
- 2027: 3.2% increase
- 2028: 3.1% increase
Total: Approximately 9.8% over three years
This Isn’t Just A “Con Edison Problem”
While ConEdison’s recent announcement has drawn the most attention, it is not isolated to their service area. Utilities across New York State are facing similar pressures and pursuing the same – if not higher – rate increases.
The drivers behind these increases are statewide:
- Aging grid infrastructure
- Electrification initiatives increasing demand
- Transmission and distribution upgrades
- Grid hardening against severe weather
- Regulatory mandates
All these add to the cost of generating and delivering power, no matter how much electricity an individual household uses. And those system costs are ultimately passed down to homeowners.
Homeowners served by other utilities are not insulated from this trend. Different companies may move on different timelines, but the direction is the same across the state. As the cost to maintain and repair the grid increases, so will electricity prices.
Why Energy Efficiency Only Gets You So Far
One of the most frustrating aspects of electric bills is that they often rise independently of consumption. Homeowners who invest in efficient appliances, LED lighting, and better insulation expect those improvements to show up on their monthly bills.
Instead, many find that savings from reduced usage are completely erased by higher delivery charges and rate adjustments.
The reason is simple: a significant portion of your electric bill is tied to maintaining and repairing the grid. Those charges grow regardless of how much electricity you personally use.
Conservation helps. But it no longer provides the protection it once did.
The Illusion Of Choice
Unlike many other household expenses, electricity is not something homeowners can shop around for. There is no competitive marketplace where you can negotiate rates, compare providers, or lock in better terms.
Power companies give you the illusion of choice by allowing you to pick a third party supplier or ESCO (Energy Service Company). Typically, you are agreeing to a rate not much lower than what you’d pay your power company. Additionally, this only covers a small portion of your bill – supply. But delivery charges, which often make up a large percentage of the total, remain controlled by the utility.
This lack of control is what makes annual rate hikes especially frustrating. Homeowners absorb the costs without having any meaningful say in how those costs are determined. For many families, electricity has quickly become one of the largest recurring monthly expenses.
Why Doing Nothing Is Still A Decision
When rate increases are announced years in advance, it’s easy to treat them as a future problem. Most people assume they will “deal with it later,” once the impact becomes more noticeable.
The problem with that approach is that rate increases compound. Each increase builds on the last. By the time your power bill feels unmanageable, several years of increases have already taken place. At that point, the options become more limited and real savings opportunities become narrower.
That’s why we always say there is a “cost to doing nothing”. It doesn’t appear all at once. It builds quietly in the background, month after month, year after year. And once the impact becomes obvious, the easiest opportunities to take control have often already passed.
How Proactive Homeowners Are Responding
There is a growing number of New York homeowners who are no longer falling prey to this vicious cycle. They are using solar to take control of their electricity costs and generate their own power onsite before these increases compound any further.
Instead of purchasing power at rates that rise year after year, they are installing solar panels and producing some or all of their electricity themselves at a discount. This decision turns electricity from an unpredictable expense into a stable, fixed cost they can actually plan around.
This decision isn’t about trends or environmental motivation. It’s purely about math.
When electricity prices keep rising, the ability to lock in your energy costs becomes more valuable every single year. Solar allows homeowners to do exactly that by replacing most if not all of their electric bill with a predictable monthly payment that does not increase.
As utility rates climb, the gap between what solar homeowners pay and what non-solar homeowners pay continues to widen. The earlier a homeowner makes that switch, the more they can benefit from compounding savings.
Over time, that difference can add up to tens of thousands of dollars in avoided electricity costs.
How Rising Electric Rates Have Tipped The Scales In Favor Of Solar
Solar has always been about offsetting electricity costs, but rising rates have significantly changed how that math works. When utility prices increase, every kilowatt-hour made at home replaces a more expensive kilowatt-hour purchased from the grid.
Unlike utility rates, solar costs are not subject to annual increases. Once a system is installed, the cost of producing electricity remains fixed for decades. This creates a gap that continuously grows between what solar power costs and what grid power costs over time. The longer rates rise, the larger that gap becomes. Waiting does not reduce the cost of solar, but it does increase the cost of continuing to rely entirely on the grid.
Electricity rates historically move in one direction. When prices rise, they rarely reverse. And each increase raises the starting point for the next.
That’s why timing matters now more than ever.
Waiting does not reduce the cost of solar. It increases the cost of continuing to rely fully on the grid.
Final Thoughts: What This Means Going Into 2026
The recent Con Edison announcement is not an anomaly. It is part of a long, well-established pattern in New York’s energy landscape. Electricity costs have been rising for years, and the factors driving those increases are not temporary. Aging infrastructure, grid upgrades, policy changes, and growing demand are all accelerating, which directly impact energy prices.
For homeowners, this creates a decision that is becoming harder to ignore. You can continue buying electricity at prices that are virtually guaranteed to rise year after year, or you can produce your own electricity at a rate that is fixed and predictable.
One option compounds against you over time. The other compounds in your favor.
The real question is no longer whether electricity will get more expensive. It is how much control you want over that outcome, and how early you want to lock it in.
See If Solar Is Right For Your Home
Every home is different. Roof layout, sun exposure, current usage, and future plans all affect how solar fits into the equation. The only way to understand your numbers is to model them properly.
That starts with building a free, personalized savings plan that shows how much electricity your home can realistically produce and how rising rates affect your long-term costs. There is no obligation and no pressure. Just clarity.
If you want to see how to avoid the next rate increase, and understand your options moving forward, request a Free Savings Plan and review the numbers for your home.
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