Optimising New York City and Westchester’s Gas Distribution Network.
Our solution
Con Edison, one of the leading utility providers in the United States, selected Optit for a strategic project in collaboration with its Energy Management and Gas Engineering Departments. The goal: develop an advanced mathematical tool for forecasting gas consumption peak demands for the gas distribution system.
Optit developed, tested, implemented, and delivered the Gas Distribution Forecasting Tool (GDFT) to optimise future natural gas investments and to support both operational and regulatory decision-making in Con Edison’s natural gas service territory.
The tool integrates natural gas consumption data from over 1 million customers with multi-level hydraulic models that reflect the physical structure of the network across Manhattan, the Bronx, parts of Queens, and Westchester.
This approach enables daily and hourly load forecasts at varying levels of granularity (districts, regulators, city gates), which are crucial for proactively planning, improving supply, and strengthening regulatory compliance with New York City and New York State’s ambitious decarbonisation plans.
One of the project’s main innovations is a custom-designed web app that allows users to:
- manage clustering, forecasting, and backcasting models;
- visualise results through heatmaps, tables, and charts;
- intuitively identify consumption peaks at critical points in the distribution network.
The interface is designed to deliver immediate insights and facilitate the integration of the tool into daily decision-making processes.
The project is part of a broader plan to decarbonise the region’s energy infrastructure and stands as a strong example of how data potential can be transformed into strategic action, reducing operational risks and guiding infrastructure investments with intelligence.
