System Benefits Charge: A Funding Source for Energy Efficiency Incentives
For years, the System Benefits Charge on New York gas bills was easy to overlook. It sat on the bill as a fraction of a penny per therm, a line item most building owners never noticed and few needed to. That changed in 2026, for customers of both major gas utilities.
The SBC is a New York State mandated charge that funds public clean energy, energy efficiency, and low income assistance programs across the state. Throughout 2025, Con Edison's charge sat at just $0.00001 per therm, a level so low it barely registered on a bill. Con Edison's most recent gas SBC statement (Statement No. 27), effective March 1, 2026, shows the charge jumping to a range of $0.040 to $0.058 per therm, depending on your building's service classification. That is an increase of several thousand times the 2025 level. This increase is driven by new surcharges that fund both income-restricted and market-rate energy efficiency and building electrification programs across the state, approved by the Public Service Commission as part of a broader 2026-2030 initiative.
The last time the Con Edison SBC approached this level was the early 2010s, when the charge never exceeded roughly four cents per therm, a period when Con Edison was offering no cost gas hookups and aggressively expanding its pipeline infrastructure. Many building owners will remember that era, and it offers a useful preview of what may be coming as Con Edison shifts its focus toward electric grid upgrades and infrastructure improvements.
To put these figures in real terms, a building using 10,000 therms a month under SC 3 Rate I would have paid about 10 cents a month in SBC charges throughout 2025. Under the new rate, that same usage costs roughly $580 a month, a meaningful and permanent increase to a line item that used to be, quite literally, a rounding error. This is not a temporary adjustment or a seasonal factor working its way out of the rate. It is a new baseline, and it will show up on every gas bill going forward until the next statement supersedes it, and it should be reflected in operating budgets from this point on.
National Grid buildings are seeing a similar shift, from a different starting point. KEDNY and KEDLI, National Grid's downstate gas utilities, had no standalone SBC line item at all in 2025. Under the same Public Service Commission orders, National Grid introduced a new SBC in 2026, landing at $0.0115 per therm for heating accounts. For a building using 10,000 therms a month, that works out to about $115 a month that simply did not exist on the bill a year earlier. No guidance has been published yet on the 2027 rate, but given the multi-year nature of the underlying program budgets, this charge is expected to remain elevated.
But this cost cuts both ways. This charge funds energy efficiency incentive programs, and those programs are not abstract. Con Edison offers rebates and incentives for multifamily buildings covering common upgrades such as HVAC replacements, building envelope improvements, and control system upgrades, with separate tracks available for both market rate and affordable housing properties. Electrification incentives exist as well for buildings interested in that path, though the economics there remain challenging even with incentives applied, and it is not the right fit for every building.
The eligibility criteria for these Con Edison programs specifically reference participation in the SBC as a qualifying factor. In other words, the very charge that just increased on your bill is tied directly to the mechanism that funds the rebate on the other side. Buildings that pursue efficiency upgrades can offset a real and rising cost with programs they are already, involuntarily, paying for. Buildings that do nothing simply absorb the cost every month with no offsetting benefit.
The incentive landscape here does shift from year to year, both in terms of what is covered and how much is available, so specific figures are best confirmed at the time a project is being scoped rather than relied on from a prior conversation or bulletin. What does not change is the underlying logic. This charge is now large enough to matter, and it exists specifically to fund the kind of upgrades many buildings are already considering for other reasons, whether that is Local Law 97 compliance, aging equipment, tenant comfort, or long-term operating costs.
This is a good moment to take a fresh look at whether your building could benefit from these incentive programs. Reach out to your Aurora Energy Advisors contact to review how the SBC applies to your building's specific rate class, and we can point you toward the right engineering and rebate specialists to evaluate a project's fit and payback.
Market Analysis
Natural Gas
The September NYMEX contract settled at $2.907 per MMBtu on its final trading day, up from lows near $2.65 earlier in the month. The increase reflects forecasts for above normal temperatures across the South and Southwest through early September, which have kept demand from gas-fired power generation elevated. Domestic production remains strong, and storage levels are still running above the five-year average, which has kept the increase in check and left the market well supplied heading into the fall injection season.
Electricity
NYISO Zone J wholesale electricity prices averaged in the mid single digits, in cents per kWh, through August, mostly in a 4 to 6 cent range. One exception came on August 6, when prices spiked to just over 15 cents per kWh amid a stretch of hot weather, before easing to 3 to 4 cents by month's end. As the market heads into the fall shoulder season, when prices typically ease before winter demand builds, NYISO's own outlook shows winter peak demand rising over time as more buildings shift from fossil fuel heating to electric systems, narrowing the historical gap with summer demand.
Crude Oil
WTI crude has swung sharply this month, dipping to lows near $74 a barrel in early August on hopes for a U.S.-Iran deal to ease Strait of Hormuz tensions, then climbing back to around $85 to $86 once that deal failed to materialize. Prices jumped again over the weekend after a renewed military incident near the strait ended weeks of relative calm. With no resolution in sight and roughly a third of pre-conflict Hormuz traffic still disrupted, continued volatility is likely into the fall.
💡 Mitchell’s Tip: Invest in energy efficiency projects.