In a year that will be remembered for its challenges and collective perseverance, the 6,100 men and women of ComEd delivered in 2020 for families, businesses and critical services across northern Illinois when they needed it most. With faster response times, smarter technology and cleaner energy sources, customers are experiencing fewer and shorter outages than ever before.
Check out how we raised the bar on reliability to keep homes and businesses in your community shining bright.
Since starting smart grid investments in 2012, we helped customers avoid more than 16 million interruptions.
This is due in part to smart grid and system improvements, including distribution automation or digital “smart switches” that automatically reroute power around potential problem areas. The avoided outages have resulted in $2.7 billion in societal savings, including avoided business losses.
The power of these investments was on full display last August when an unprecedented storm interrupted power to more than 800,000 customers.
We safely restored more than half a million customers in less than 24 hours – the fastest time in the our 114-year history.
If not for these investments, this storm would have caused nearly twice as many families and businesses to lose power, a two-week restoration and millions of additional dollars in costs.
In 2020, we improved on our grid capabilities to integrate more clean energy resources.
We deployed advanced communications infrastructure for increased system observability; we installed 120 miles of fiber and completed over 250 leased circuit and legacy service disconnects saving more than $1 million annually in ongoing expense, while getting us ready to meet the increased observability needed as more distributed energy resources are interconnected to the system.
We deployed advanced sensors across the system, including a demonstration through the support of a U.S. Department of Energy grant that will help us enable more clean, distributed renewable energy.
ComEd and its partners received $40 million in funding for new projects from the Department of Energy. At the same time, we expanded our portfolio of innovative technologies to support expansion and adaption of clean energy systems – like a cyber-secure fast charging electric vehicle station – to help develop the next generation of technologies that can provide a whole new level of service in the future.
For information on what ComEd is doing to improve reliability, visit ComEd.com/SmartGrid.
