ComEd is Prepared to Provide Reliable Service to Customers Through Hotter Summer Months

ComEd is Prepared to Provide Reliable Service to Customers Through Hotter Summer Months

Investments to strengthen and modernize the electric grid have continually increased reliability and customer satisfaction

As the warmer weather of summer arrives, ComEd customers will use more energy to keep their homes and businesses cool. Fortunately, the energy company has taken steps to make sure customers continue to receive reliable electric service through the warm season, ComEd leaders reported to the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) recently.

“Families, businesses, and other customers shouldn’t have to worry about their power going out at the times they need it most,” said Terence R. Donnelly, executive vice president and chief operating officer of ComEd. “Building on the historic reliability our customers enjoy today, we’ve taken numerous actions to minimize the number of outages customers experience this summer and to ensure that we restore service as quickly and safely as possible when outages do occur.”

Customers of ComEd enjoyed record reliability, including a 99.98 percent reliability rate, in 2017 company leaders told the ICC. Last year 3.2 million of ComEd’s 4 million customers experienced one or no power outages. ComEd also had the lowest number of customers experience multiple outages and received the fewest complaints about service reliability in any year on record.

ComEd’s record performance is mainly a result of the Smart Grid Law the Illinois legislature passed in 2011, which enabled ComEd to invest $2.6 billion to upgrade and modernize the electric grid. Because of those investments, ComEd customers experienced 46 percent fewer outages in 2017 than in the years before the law was enacted, and outages that did occur were 46 percent shorter. In 2017 alone, ComEd avoided approximately 1.5 million customer outages thanks to new, digital smart switches that automatically reroute power around problem areas.

ComEd leaders also reported to the ICC on recent investments, planning, and training to further bolster reliability, capacity, storm response, and emergency preparedness.

In addition, ComEd offers programs that incent customers to reduce energy use on days of peak demand. More than 250,000 customers are enrolled in ComEd’s Peak Time Savings program, providing 38 megawatts of demand response. The program saved these customers more than $1.2 million in 2017. In addition, 89,000 customers are enrolled in ComEd’s Central Air Conditioning Cycling program, which has the potential to reduce demand by 89 megawatts.

Latest Stories

Latest Podcast

STARR Community Services International, Inc.