ComEd doubles jobs, boosts economy and improves customer satisfaction with Smart Grid
ComEd doubles jobs, boosts economy and improves customer satisfaction with Smart Grid
By Christopher Shuttlesworth
In 2011, ComEd proposed legislation that allowed the company to spend money to modernize its Smart Grid, which currently uses technology to help create more efficiency in the way ComEd operates and manages their distribution system.
Since, the modernization of the Smart Grid, ComEd has doubled their jobs, boosted the economy, and improved customer
satisfaction with a host of new social media alert options, according to Isaac Akridge, ComEd’s Vice President of Distribution.
Akridge said the reason ComEd decided to modernize its Smart Grid is because of older infrastructure in the field and due to the company’s strong desire to improve service for customers.
“We understand that the utility industry is old and in some cases there was older infrastructure in the field and when technology became available it was an opportunity to see how we could leverage and modernize our grid to improve the service that we provide to our customers,” he said.
According to ComEd, “the Smart Grid Law authorized the installation of nearly 4 million smart meters across northern
Illinois, creating benefits far beyond providing customers with real-time outage information. Now, customers have the digital tools to track their own energy use and take advantage of programs that save them energy and money.
Akridge said with the new Smart Grid system, customers are seeing less outages and duration, resulting in 7.6 million outages being avoided.
He said one of the main reasons outages have been avoided is because of the new smart meters that give customers more
access to how they’re using energy and new smart switches that allow customers to read activity from the smart grid and redirect power to minimize the outages.
“We’re more active and engaged in our [customers’] communities as we continue to find ways to educate our customers
about the Smart Grid by being in their back yards and working with them to install their smart meters and teaching them how to
use them,” Akridge said.
“Pleasing our customers is our mission and our customers depend on electricity,” he said. “Overtime, we know that they will have more demands and we know that they want more transparency to how the company is servicing their needs, more options to the service because it’s vital to their quality of
life.
“This is not a one-stop move for us in terms of looking at benefits of the Smart Grid and how we can leverage technology over time,” Akridge said
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