ComEd Reaffirms Customer Commitment at Summer Readiness Briefings

CHICAGO, May 25 /PRNewswire/ -- ComEd officials today informed the Chicago City Council Committee on Energy, Environmental Protection and Public Utilities that performance across the company is solid entering into the high-demand summer months.

"We are well prepared to meet customer energy needs this summer," ComEd President and Chief Operating Officer Anne Pramaggiore said at the committee's annual summer readiness hearing. "In light of the continuing troubled economy, we also want to make sure customers are aware that we set aside $10 million in assistance funds this year for our suite of CARE programs. We also have energy efficiency options available in our Smart Ideas(sm) portfolio to help customers manage their energy usage and save money."

ComEd continues to invest in its infrastructure to further enhance reliability and meet customer demand. Since the late 1990s, the company has invested more than $9 billion in its transmission and distribution system. As a result, customers have experienced a 54 percent reduction in the frequency of interruptions and a shortening of outage duration by 59 percent over the same period.

Last year, ComEd had its best reliability performance on record, delivering electric service to customers 99.9 percent of the time, with fewer outages recorded than at any other time.

With system performance strong, ComEd briefed the committee on its efforts to serve customers as an electricity provider and resource. Some highlights included:

• Assistance: This year, ComEd plans to distribute more than $10 million in customer assistance funds. In 2009, ComEd distributed about $15.5 million in assistance to more than 75,000 customers.
• Smart Meters: In about one week, ComEd's smart meter program will go live and begin to provide more than 100,000 customers with daily electricity usage information, accessible through the Internet, to help them monitor their energy use and manage energy costs.
• Energy Efficiency: ComEd's Smart Ideas(sm) energy efficiency programs are helping customers save more than $155 million on electricity bills over a three-year period. These programs place ComEd among the top utilities in the nation in terms of electricity savings achieved through energy efficiency.
• Green Vehicles: ComEd continues to grow its fleet – one of the largest alternative fueled fleets in the nation–with the addition of even more green vehicles. ComEd also established a partnership with the City of Chicago to install a network of publicly-accessible electric vehicle charging stations including two solar-powered charging stations.

In 2009, ComEd contributed more than $4.5 million to 350 non-profit organizations, schools, museums and performing arts organizations. ComEd employees volunteered more than 13,190 hours with local charities and donated more than $1 million to the United Way Campaign.

Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) is a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC), one of the nation's largest electric utilities with approximately 5.4 million customers. ComEd provides service to approximately 3.8 million customers across northern Illinois, or 70 percent of the state's population.

SOURCE ComEd

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