New Yorkers consume annually approximately $19 billion of the energy to power, heat, and cool their city. The city's highly interconnected electricity, natural gas, and steam systems are among the oldest and most concentrated in the nation. Thomas Edison developed the world first electric generation and distribution system in New York City in the 1880s. The electricity in New York has grown to serve 8.3 million people and 250,000 businesses who use about 1.4 percent of all electricity of the United States. The electricity system is made of three main elements: generation, the transmission system, and the distribution system. Twenty four plants generate up to 9,600 MW of power, which is more than 80 percent of New York City's peak demand. Most of the time, only a subset of the plants directly connected to New York City runs by satisfying roughly 50 percent of the city's needs with cheaper electricity imported from Upstate New York and New Jersey. The whole system operates only during the peak time of electricity usage, such as when the use of air conditioner escalates owing summer heat. After the generation, produced electricity needs to be transported at high voltages to large substations. Both in-city-generated and imported electricity is delivered to Con Edison's electric grid at 24 high-voltage facilities housing switching and transformer devices. These substations direct the powers to a great number of customers or the hub of important infrastructures. Subsequent to this step, it carries electricity from large substations to smaller ones such as homes and businesses ultimately. Con Edison is the dominant electric utility in the city, distributing electricity to all five boroughs. About 65 percent of heating and a critical percentage of cooking in New York use natural gas fuels. Gas also fuels more than 98 percent of in-city electricity generation by power plants. A system of four private interstate pipeline transports natural gas from the Gulf Coast, Western Canada and other production regions to the city through the interconnection station called "city gates." From numerous city gates, high-pressure gas comes via an intra-city transmission system called the New York Facilities. To be distributed to the individual consumers, the gas is carried through a set of regulator points that decrease the pressure of the gas and send it into a main distribution structure underground. In the New York City, Con Edison owns and controls the gas distribution system in Manhattan, the Bronx, and parts of Northern Queens. National Grid owns and operates the rest of the city's system. $300 million a year.