Thanks to ComEd’s record-breaking, nation-leading reliability, ComEd customers can use their flashlights to make shadow puppets instead of saving them for emergency lighting during blackouts – an unimaginable idea a decade ago.
“It wasn’t that long ago that most ComEd customers expected power outages and considered them commonplace,” said ComEd President and COO Terence R. Donnelly. “Today the story is very different. Our investments in the grid are paying off as ComEd today offers some of the best reliability in the nation, ensuring ComEd customers have reliable and sustainable power when they need it the most.”
ComEd is delivering the highest levels of service in its century-long history, providing families and businesses the reliable and resilient clean energy they need and deserve. In fact, ComEd’s reliability performance for the first nine months of 2022 was highest on record for any year in company history.
This strong performance would not be possible if not for smart grid improvements that began in 2011. Since these investments began, ComEd and its more than 6,200 employees have helped customers avoid more than 18.8 million outages, saving more than $3 billion in outage-related costs. And as extreme weather events become more common as a result of climate change, continued investment in grid improvements are critical to maintaining the high level of service our customers have come to expect.
Additionally, a more robust, capable, and intelligent power grid is essential to helping our region stay competitive in attracting new businesses – and the jobs that come with them – to northern Illinois, while at the same time allowing us to better meet clean energy and decarbonization goals, which call for more electric vehicles and significant growth in renewable and carbon-free energy sources like solar panels.
The electric grid remains the last line of defense for the communities that depend on us to power their lives and livelihoods. Continuing to improve the grid’s reliability and resiliency – to ensure that power is available on demand and when our vulnerable customers need it most – is not optional.
