2022 A Year of Record Setting Reliability, Equity, and Driving Clean Energy

A stronger, smarter grid is needed to support a cleaner energy future that will bring improved air quality to communities as more solar, electric vehicles and other clean technologies are adopted. At the same time, the impacts of climate change are already apparent here in northern Illinois, as evidenced by more frequent flooding, hotter temperatures, and more extreme and destructive storms that present new challenges to our aging infrastructure.

Despite these challenges, ComEd is delivering the highest levels of service in its history, providing families and businesses the reliable and resilient clean energy they need.

In 2022, ComEd again delivered outstanding service while sparking economic development, lifting customers and communities in need, inspiring the next generation of STEM leaders and enabling a clean energy future.

Providing record-setting reliability

• ComEd’s reliability is among the best of all large U.S. electric companies and was better in 2022 than in any year on record.
• Since ComEd started smart grid improvements in 2012, it has improved overall reliability by more than 80 percent, helping customers avoid more than 19 million outages and save more than $3.3 billion in outage-related costs.

Delivering value to customers

• ComEd’s average total monthly customer bill of $93 is among the lowest in the nation today, and its residential customers’ bills are approximately 20 percent lower than the average in the 10 largest U.S. metropolitan areas.
• ComEd’s Energy Efficiency Program is one of the largest in the nation, offering residents, businesses and the public sector a variety of options that help them cut back on their energy use and reduce their energy bills. In 2022, customer savings resulting from the program passed the $7 billion mark since the program launched in 2008.

Creating economic opportunity

• Companies continue to invest in the region thanks to the unparalleled access to clean, cost-effective and highly reliable power. To spark economic development, in the last two years, ComEd has brought 28 commercial projects online, including 12 data centers, representing 6,800 jobs and more than $3 billion in local investment.
• We expect to meet – if not exceed – our 2022 goal for spending with minority-owned, women-owned and veteran-owned companies. In 2021, ComEd spent $893 million – 42 percent of its total spend – with diversity-certified suppliers, up from $253 million in 2012.
• ComEd launched or supported job training and apprenticeship programs that prepare local residents for good-paying jobs.
  • In 2022, 104 students graduated from the CONSTRUCT Infrastructure, CONSTRUCT Business Operations Academy and Craft Academy.
  • 35 people graduated from the Tools of the Trade apprenticeship program.
  • ComEd sponsors the Dawson Technical Institutes Overhead Electrical Line Worker Training (OELW) Program, which graduated roughly 20 students last year.
  • And ComEd alone hired 34 people who graduated through these programs.
• In 2022, ComEd announced that it would hire 500 entry-level employees in the next three years to ensure its workforce is prepared to meet the demands of Illinois’ clean energy transformation.
  • To help job seekers overcome barriers to employment, ComEd offers a free, one-day training programs for local and diverse job seekers. These include climb clinics, math clinics and interviewing workshops, including an online practice CAST test, an industry entrance exam that tests math and reading skills.

Supporting customers and communities in need

• To reduce the burden for those facing economic hardship, ComEd connected more than 210,000 customers to more than $129 million in financial assistance and extended payment options.
• ComEd provided more than $500,000 in grant funding in 2022 to more than 60 organizations and municipalities through its Green Region, Powering Safe Communities and Powering the Arts competitive grant programs.
• ComEd employees stepped up with their time and their dollars to support the communities in which they live and work.
  • In 2022, ComEd employees volunteered over 20,000 hours and raised more than $1.5 million to support communities and causes close to their hearts.

Increasing equitable access to clean and renewable energy sources

• In 2022, 15 community solar projects were connected to the ComEd system, laying the groundwork to celebrate the 75^th project in service in early 2023. This enables about 17,000 residential customers to participate in the benefits of solar energy without installing panels on their own homes and receive credits on their ComEd bill for energy generated by the community solar farm.
• The distributed generation rebate program grew from $8 million in payments in 2019 to $21.4 million in payments in 2022, helping more customers cover the cost of installing renewable energy systems.
• ComEd received a record-setting 19,292 interconnection applications from residential, commercial and industrial customers to connect things like solar panels (Distributed Energy Resources) to ComEd’s smart grid.

Facilitating a decarbonized future

• ComEd’s service territory is a national leader in clean energy: In 2022, enough clean energy was available to meet 96 percent of our customers’ consumption on an hour-by-hour basis.
• To support the state’s goal of putting 1 million electric vehicles on Illinois roads by 2030, ComEd provided a free, online customer-focused EV Toolkit to give residential customers with the information and resources they need to make educated decisions about switching to an electric vehicle.
• To advance the electrification of buildings, ComEd launched a $40 million whole home electrification program, a first-of-its-kind program to convert low-income single family and multi-unit homes to all-electric, using highly efficient technologies.
• In partnership with the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus, ComEd welcomed the first group of 16 communities to the EV Readiness Program, a unique initiative to help local governments prepare to meet the growing demand for EVs and EV charging infrastructure. The program is funded in part by a $225,000 commitment from ComEd and will help communities streamline policies and implement best practices for safe and effective regional transportation.
• Awarded $250,000 in grants to five area public high schools through the ComEd EV for Education program, which provides schools funding to offset the cost of an EV and EV charger, giving students first-hand experience driving EVs and learning about new net-zero emissions vehicles on the rise in Illinois and across the country.

Creating a pipeline of diverse STEM talent

• To improve diverse representation in STEM careers, ComEd provided educational and training opportunities to nearly 2,000 students in 2022. These programs include:
  • ComEd’s EV Rally, where 30 Chicagoland high school girls worked with ComEd mentors to build and race electric race cars. Each participant also received a $2,000 scholarship.
  • ComEd’s Black History Month STEM Home Labs, where over 450 high school students enrolled for a virtual STEM event to engage with prominent African American STEM leaders. Each participant also received a $250 scholarship.
  • ComEd’s Youth Ambassadors Program, a summer program where 114 high school students received a $725 scholarship while learning about the grid, renewable power and energy efficiency from ComEd engineers.
  • ComEd’s Hispanic Heritage Month STEM Labs, where 50 Latino high school students worked with ComEd mentors to construct robots and learn more about STEM careers. Each student also received a $250 scholarship.

Over the last decade, we have transformed our network into a more modern grid that today delivers superior value and reliability to more than 9 million people across northern Illinois. But our work is not done.

To prepare for the digital and decarbonized future, ComEd has announced multi-year grid and rate plans that will strengthen the region’s infrastructure and economy and increase access to the benefits of clean energy and decarbonization under the state’s Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA). The plans also ensure that the electric grid remains reliable and resilient as severe weather events become more common due to climate change. The plans align with ComEd 2030, the company’s recently announced vision for a carbon-free energy future that will benefit all communities and meet customers’ changing needs for the rest of this decade and beyond.