ComEd Files 10-year Plan with ICC for Implementing New Grid Modernization Program

• Published in: M2 Presswire
• Format: Newsletter
• Language: English
• Published: Coventry Normans Media Ltd 09.01.2012
• Subjects: Automation; Blackouts; Customer services; Electricity distribution; Infrastructure; Modernization; Smart grid technology; Storms

The filing also included the utility's $233 million Investment Plan for 2012 and its plan for a smart grid Test Bed to provide entrepreneurs "on-grid" locations for testing of smart grid-related technologies and services. Implementation of the investment program began this week. The installation of advanced meters in homes and businesses is slated to begin later this year, subject to approval of ComEd's Advanced Metering Infrastructure Deployment Plan (AMI Plan) by the ICC, and will continue through 2021. In the first five years of the program, ComEd will reinforce the electric system infrastructure to improve reliability and reduce the frequency and duration of power outages. ComEd will begin the digital transformation of the electric infrastructure with the addition of advanced digital technologies to improve overall system reliability and performance. Major planned investments include the installation of advanced meters in homes and businesses beginning in the fourth quarter of 2012. ComEd expects to install 130,000 meters within the first year. Beginning in 2013, it will install an average of 440,000 meters annually through completion of the program. In accordance with the law, ComEd presented its plan to create and operate a smart grid "Test Bed" that will provide entrepreneurs with the opportunity to test a broad range of equipment, services, technologies and business models within a utility scale environment. ComEd is designating its Innovation Corridor as the Test Bed location. The ComEd Smart Grid Innovation Corridor was launched in 2010 in conjunction with the company's advanced meter pilot project. It provided a laboratory for evaluating new technologies and approaches, including ComEd's first intelligent substation, distribution automation technology and electric vehicle charging stations.