ComEd Smart Grid Program Delivering on Promises
April 06 2017 - 11:51AM
Business Wire
ComEd Reports to ICC Show Work on Schedule,
Delivering Record Reliability, Creating Jobs
ComEd reported this week to the Illinois Commerce Commission
(ICC) that infrastructure programs authorized under the Smart Grid
Law are on schedule, with some of the major projects being
completed in June, and delivering on promises as the program has
reduced the frequency and duration of service interruptions by 44
and 48 percent, respectively.
ComEd’s 2017 update to its Infrastructure Investment Plan and
the Advanced Metering Implementation Progress Report provide a
comprehensive review of the smart grid program established by the
Energy Infrastructure Modernization Act (EIMA). Enacted in 2011,
EIMA authorized ComEd to invest $2.6 billion to upgrade and
modernize its electric delivery system over a 10-year period.
Because of these investments, ComEd customers are benefiting from
record-breaking reliability with more than 7.6 million avoided
outages since the launch of the program in 2012 and an associated
$1.4 billion in societal savings.
“The smart grid program investments are delivering remarkable
results for our customers and our economy,” said Anne Pramaggiore,
president and CEO, ComEd. “These investments, along with our
unrelenting focus on providing exceptional customer service have
led to best reliability on record, with the fewest and shortest
power outages ever experienced by ComEd customers. The smart grid
program also has supported thousands of jobs and development in our
communities. It has laid the foundation and set Illinois on a path
to a smart, lean, custom, and reliable energy future - that’s what
our customers want and deserve.”
The smart grid program includes the installation of smart
meters, which enable customers to better control energy consumption
and costs. To date, smart meters have been installed in more than 3
million homes and businesses in ComEd’s 11,000-square-mile region
in northern Illinois.
The smart grid program also required ComEd to create at least
2,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions during the peak program
year. ComEd doubled the number of positions required, supporting
4,572 FTEs, including direct jobs at ComEd and its contractors and
suppliers and induced positions representing a broad range of
functions required to build a 21st century electric grid. In
calendar year 2016, the smart grid program supported 4,285
FTEs.
Grid Modernization Programs Delivering Record
Reliability
ComEd’s major grid modernization programs include refurbishment
or replacement of thousands of miles of cable, including
underground residential cable, mainline cable and high voltage
underground cable. ComEd also is assessing more than 30,000
manholes on its system, replacing or repairing cable systems and
performing structural work ranging from minor refurbishment to
complete replacement.
ComEd is inspecting more than 880,000 wood poles, reinforcing
and replacing more than 20,000 of them. It has conducted storm
hardening to reduce susceptibility of certain circuits to
storm-related damage, including high winds, thunder storms and ice
storms. These improvements include installation of tree
resistant cable, tree trimming and additional vegetation management
and other engineered solutions.
Smart Grid Technology Drives Innovation
ComEd will install more than 700,000 smart meters this year and
complete the total installation of nearly 4 million smart meters in
2018, three years ahead of the original schedule. Smart meter
benefits include easy access to money saving programs, such as Peak
Time Savings. Program participants are earning financial incentives
by reducing energy usage during just a few peak demand hours, with
166,383 customers earning $1.2 million in bill credits since the
program debuted in 2015.
Smart grid-related investments also include Distribution
Automation (DA), which detects issues on the distribution system
and automatically re-routes power to reduce frequency and duration
of service interruptions. ComEd’s DA program was completed in 2016
after installation of more than 2,600 devices, benefitting 71
percent of ComEd’s customers. These “smart switches” resulted in
1.4 million avoided customer interruptions in 2016 and the number
of ComEd customers impacted by storms has been reduced by 37
percent since 2012.
Smart grid investments also include digital upgrades to 16
substations through installation of microprocessor-based devices
that remotely monitor the health of transformers and improve
visibility to the ComEd system so that potential problems can be
more easily identified and prevented. ComEd will continue its
substation modernization into 2021 when the smart grid program will
be completed.
“Because of smart grid investments, today we have a smarter,
stronger and more efficient energy delivery system that is
providing great value to our customers and state,” said Terence
Donnelly, executive vice president and COO, ComEd. “These
investments have played an important role in the record-setting
reliability we have achieved as we’ve brought a 100-year-old system
into the 21st century, ready to power homes and businesses in
today’s digital economy.”
For more information about the smart grid program and results,
please see the 2017 Smart Grid Capstone Report.
Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) is a unit of Chicago-based
Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC), the nation’s leading competitive
energy provider, with approximately 10 million customers. ComEd
provides service to approximately 3.9 million customers across
northern Illinois, or 70 percent of the state’s population. For
more information visit ComEd.com, and connect with the company on
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
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