In recognition of ComEd’s successful efforts to achieve best-in-class reliability, PA Consulting, the global innovation and transformation consultancy, yesterday presented the electric company the 2024 ReliabilityOne® award for Outstanding Reliability Performance in the Midwest Metropolitan Service Area. ComEd also received the Climate Action Leader award for advancing the planning and operations to transition into a cleaner future grid.
“ComEd continues to make strategic investments in its system to ensure best-in-class reliability for its customers,” said David Perez, Executive Vice President and COO of ComEd. “At the same time, we are improving the grid to meet the needs of our customers who want more clean, renewable energy on the grid and achieve the goals set forward in Illinois’ landmark Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, or CEJA.”
ComEd customers have seen continuous improvement in grid reliability performance in recent years. Today, ComEd customers enjoy best-in-class reliability, with fewer customer outages at any point in the company’s history, and outages with a shorter duration when they do occur. Since ComEd started smart grid improvements in 2012, it has improved overall reliability by more than 70 percent, helping customers avoid nearly 21.7 million customer interruptions and save more than $3.8 billion in outage-related costs. ComEd’s performance comes as the company faces more powerful storms and continues to focus on power grid investments and innovations, storm hardening and vegetation management solutions, and cable replacement to ensure continued strong service as new challenges impact the grid and as customer needs evolve.
“In the face of increased instances of extreme weather and evolving energy needs, Illinoisans rely on reliable, uninterrupted service – and ComEd continues to rise to the challenge," said Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. "Earning both the Outstanding Reliability Performance and Outstanding Climate Action Leader awards, ComEd proves once again that they’re leading the way not just in service, but in sustainability. The State of Illinois is thankful for their continued dedication to powering our communities while advancing our Climate and Equitable Jobs Act goals for a cleaner, greener future.”
This clean energy transition has pushed utilities to equitably incorporate advanced methods of load management, incorporation of distributed energy resources (DERs) to enable its customers to participate in the clean energy transition. ComEd’s investments are also preparing the grid for the introduction of more electrification like electric vehicles (EVs) as well as clean energy via DER, such as solar energy. More than 1,120 MW of DER, including community solar and rooftop solar systems for residential, commercial, and industrial customers, are interconnected to the ComEd system. The company expects to have projects representing over 1,900 MW of renewable energy generation interconnected by 2025. Illinois has a goal of putting 1 million EVs on the road in Illinois by 2030, as outlined in CEJA. Today, over 116,000 EVs are registered in Illinois, with a majority owned by ComEd customers.
“Our investments are allowing our customers to have more options and access to cleaner technologies,” said Perez. “Both ComEd and the state of Illinois are working to make Illinois a leader in clean energy and meet the needs of our customers.”
“As our societal dependence on electricity increases through building electrification, transportation electrification, and routine load growth, the importance of resiliency becomes paramount,” said Derek HasBrouck, PA Consulting’s ReliabilityOne® Director. “ComEd has made resiliency improvements and shaped their planning, operations, and customer journey design to improve system resiliency and provide an elevated customer experience.”
All utilities operating electric delivery networks in North America are eligible for consideration for the ReliabilityOne® Midwest Metropolitan Service Area and Outstanding Climate Action Leader Awards. The selection of Midwest Metropolitan Service Area recipients is based primarily on system reliability statistics that measure the frequency and duration of customer outages.
About ComEd
ComEd is a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corporation (NASDAQ: EXC), a Fortune 200 energy company with approximately 10 million electricity and natural gas customers – the largest number of customers in the U.S. ComEd powers the lives of more than 4 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, Instagram and YouTube
About PA Consulting
We believe in the power of ingenuity to build a positive human future. As strategies, technologies, and innovation collide, we create opportunity from complexity. Our diverse teams of experts combine innovative thinking and breakthrough technologies to progress further, faster. Our clients adapt and transform, and together we achieve enduring results. We are over 4,000 strategists, innovators, designers, consultants, digital experts, scientists, engineers, and technologists. And we have deep expertise in consumer and manufacturing, defence and security, energy and utilities, financial services, government and public services, health and life sciences, and transport. Our teams operate globally from offices across the UK, Ireland, US, Nordics, and Netherlands. Discover more at paconsulting.com and connect with PA on LinkedIn and Twitter. PA. Bringing Ingenuity to Life.
PA Consulting’s ReliabilityOne® awards are presented to electric utilities providing their customers with the highest levels of reliability in the industry. PA Consulting’s ReliabilityOne® study is based on standard industry reliability statistics that measure the frequency and duration of electric power outages. ReliabilityOne® participants on average experienced 35% fewer sustained outages, and outages were 50% shorter than the average US investor owned utility. PA Consulting has been analyzing electric utility performance since 1987. For more information about PA Consulting, visit www.paconsulting.com/energy.
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