City of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel joined GE, Silver Spring Networks and ComEd at a GE manufacturing facility on the south side of Chicago to announce new Smart Grid contracts that will bring millions of dollars of investment and new jobs to Chicago. GE announced that it will manufacture smart meters on the city of Chicago’s south side, and that it will seek to hire local residents to build these meters.
Additionally, ComEd laid out the general schedule for installation of smart meters throughout the city of Chicago. The city’s south side will start to receive the new meters in 2014 and will have the network fully in place by 2016; at that point the north side will begin to receive the meters and will have them by 2018. By 2018, each of the city’s 1.3 million homes or businesses is expected to have a smart meter.
ComEd and GE are partnering on a $200 million contract for GE to manufacture and deliver approximately 4 million smart meters, which ComEd will install for all customers beginning this September through 2021. GE will assemble the smart meters in Chicago at a south side factory, creating approximately 50 jobs. Smart meters provide timely data to electricity users about how much power they’re using, giving customers more control over their energy use.
Silver Spring Networks, which provides the technology platform for ComEd’s smart grid network, will also open a new facility in Chicago that will house dozens of new technology jobs and a next-generation network operations center to serve Smart Grid projects in Illinois and across the Midwest. That facility, which was announced by Mayor Emanuel in January 2012, is being implemented now and is currently being staffed.
As part of its smart grid work, ComEd is participating in the creation of the Energy Foundry, an early-stage impact venture fund created to support game-changing grid and energy ideas, and to empower consumers to harness the benefits of the energy-tech revolution. The initial source of funding totaled $22.5 million and was provided by ComEd and Ameren. During the lifetime of the Energy Foundry, outside public and private sources also may contribute resources. In partnership with the Energy Foundry, ComEd will establish a smart grid test bed to serve as a venue for Energy Foundry participants, and others, to develop new smart grid technologies.
ComEd is investing $2.6 billion over 10 years in a modern grid that will reduce power outages and give customers more choice and control over their energy use. More than $1.3 billion of that investment is earmarked to build a Smart Grid network and install 4 million smart meters in all Northern Illinois homes and businesses. ComEd’s modernization efforts are designed to reduce outages by 700,000 per year, saving customers an estimated $100 million in outage-related costs.
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