It’s Friday night and you are in your Chicago high-rise apartment. You’ve got a bowl of popcorn, your favorite soda and your favorite movie on television. Then in the blink of an eye, your television goes black, your lights go out and your Friday night looks like a bust. You glance out your window and notice lights on elsewhere along your block. You’re left wondering, “What’s the problem?”
ComEd regularly gets calls from customers in this situation. Now, with innovative use of smart meter technology, we can answer your questions in the snap of a finger – or the ping of a meter, in this case. Thanks to smart meter technology, ComEd can remotely test connectivity to your smart meter and determine if your power being out is the result of a ComEd issue. If not – which is often the case – our care center representatives and mobile apps now advise on simple steps you can take on your end, such as flipping your breaker box switch.
This capability is part of ComEd’s AMI Outage Reporting Channel Integration project, which recently won POWERGRID International’s Project of the Year for Customer Engagement award at the 2017 DistribuTECH Conference.
This award-winning service not only makes it easier for customers to get their lights back on quickly – but it also saves customers money, as ComEd staff spend less time and travel costs investigating reported outages that are actually on a customer’s side rather than on the power grid. In fact, this capability has helped avoid approximately 29,000 service calls in 2016, which saves customers money in the long run.
There are many ways you can take advantage of this service. If you have a smart meter and report an outage via ComEd.com, the ComEd mobile app, Facebook, text message, or automated voice response system, your notification will automatically enable ComEd to remotely determine if your smart meter is energized. Using online reporting tools are encouraged for faster service, but customers can still contact ComEd at 1-800-Edison-1 (1-800-334-7661).
If ComEd’s automated system determines that your smart meter is energized, that means the issue impacting your power may be something in your home. When that happens, ComEd will automatically reply to you recommending that you flip a switch on your breaker box to try to resolve the issue. Most of the time, the smart meter is energized so you can quickly resolve the issue on your own without further assistance from ComEd.
If ComEd confirms that your smart meter is not energized, then ComEd may need to send a crew to address the issue and restore power to your home.
To learn more about this award-winning service, visit the ComEd website.
