ComEd Recognized as One of the Top 10 Utilities for Economic Development

Site Selection magazine has named ComEd to its annual list of Top 10 Utilities in Economic Development for 2015 in its September edition.

The magazine credits ComEd’s Economic Development Team and its successful collaboration with state and regional partners for delivering a total projected capital investment of more than $3 billion and nearly 22,000 new jobs across northern Illinois. Site Selection is a national trade publication read by corporate executives, site location consultants, and real estate professionals who are responsible for choosing business and industry locations.

ComEd also continues to refine its internal “rapid response” program, which provides hands-on, personalized guidance to interested parties by bringing together all business unit partners – from operations to capacity, to regulatory -- very early in the process to expedite cost and engineering information to support the prospect’s decision to locate in northern Illinois. In addition, ComEd is continuing its partnership with World Business Chicago on a one-stop shop Data Center Express service that helps to accelerate entry of these mission-critical facilities into the Chicagoland area.

A fundamental economic development aspect of an electric utility is to provide safe, reliable, and competitively priced electricity to its customers. 2013 and 2014 were the two best years for reliability in the company’s history – and during the first half of this year, ComEd has set a new record in reliability. ComEd credits these improvements in part to the implementation of the Energy Infrastructure Modernization Act (EIMA), also known as the Smart Grid law passed by the Illinois General Assembly in 2011 to improve reliability, create jobs and build smart infrastructure for the future. This $2.6 billion, 10-year project is digitizing ComEd’s infrastructure, providing resiliency, smart substations and better serving the utility’s customers.

“I am pleased that we’ve added rigor to our process, along with strengthening our partnerships with our local, state and regional economic development stakeholders,” said Sheila Owens, Vice President of Economic Development for ComEd. “Together we are stimulating investment, growth and job creation throughout northern Illinois.”

“This recognition is well deserved for one of our strongest development allies,” said John Greuling, President and CEO of the Will County Center for Economic Development. “In our fast growing county, we know that electricity reliability, availability and price can be critical factors in the development process, and ComEd excels with all of these.”

“ComEd provides excellent programs and services to our region, not only to support new growth, but for our important existing businesses as well,” said Mike Nicholas, President of the Rockford Area Economic Development Council. “ComEd has been a long-term sponsor and partner in our Voice of the Customer existing business outreach and retention initiative that has touched over 900 area companies in the past decade and been an integral part of guiding our community along the path of continual improvement.”

ComEd is currently working to pass legislation that would further expand the benefits of the 2011 Smart Grid Law by growing energy efficiency programs, increasing access to renewable energy sources, and setting policy to ensure affordability amidst clean energy innovation. This Future Energy Plan legislation will further position northern Illinois for continued economic development growth.

To read the full article, go to http://siteselection.com/issues/2015/sep/top-utilities.cfm.

Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) is a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC), the nation’s leading competitive energy provider, with approximately 6.6 million customers. ComEd provides service to approximately 3.8 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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