Due to the Board of Aldermen's authority to grant franchises in the City of New York in the early to mid-19th century, interaction with Tammany Hall was required to expand the business.

But by 1920 there were far fewer, and Consolidated Gas's electricity arm, now called the New York Edison Company, was the leader.

Con Edison today is the result of acquisitions, dissolutions, and mergers of more than 170 individual electric, gas, and steam companies.

Consolidated Edison acquired land on the Hudson River in Buchanan, NY, in 1954 for the Indian Point nuclear power plant.

The reactor was shut down on October 31, 1974, because the emergency core cooling system did not meet regulatory requirements.

[9] With the sale of Indian Point 2, the last power plant it owned, Consolidated Edison, Inc. became primarily an energy distributor.

[8] On January 1, 1998, following the deregulation of the utility industry in New York State, a holding company, Consolidated Edison, Inc., was formed.

The company provides a wide range of energy-related products and services to its customers through two regulated utility subsidiaries and three competitive energy businesses.

Through this program, Con Edison pays customers to charge their vehicles when energy demand is low.

Nearly 36,000 miles (58,000 km) of overhead electric wires complement the underground system—enough cable to stretch between New York and Los Angeles 13 times.

[17] Steam traveling through the system is used to heat and cool some of New York's most famous addresses, including the United Nations complex, the Empire State Building, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

[19] Examples of such resources include: Con Edison contributes substantial funding and volunteer hours to many non-profit organizations and learning centers including New York Botanical Garden, Hudson Valley Groundworks Science Barge, Teatown Reservation, Jay Heritage Center, and the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.

[22] On January 14, 2009, eleven Con Edison supervisors were arrested for demanding more than $1 million in kickbacks related to work done by a construction company that was repairing the Midtown steam pipe eruption of 2007.

[48] Later that year Con Edison sued Brendan Maher, one of the construction supervisors who was arrested and later admitted to taking bribes that the utility company claimed amounted to $10,000.

[49] In April 2016, Con Edison agreed to pay over $171 million, about 1.5% of its annual revenue, back to its customers in compensation for harm resulting from the bribery.

Temporary fixes, using what was described as "nothing more than overhead extension cords" (called "Shunts") at times are left in place for an extended period.

In 1978, Con Edison sold the Excelsior Power Company Building, a former substation on Gold Street in Manhattan's Financial District.