Helping customers and communities engage in GHG emissions reductions

As part of Exelon 2020, our three-pronged strategy for shrinking our carbon footprint, we are helping our customers and the communities we serve reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  We educate, encourage action and provide opportunities for real-time engagement with the issues of climate change.

A significant portion of the Exelon 2020 emissions reductions will come from helping our customers reduce their energy consumption, so Exelon is investing more than $324 million through 2011 on a range of innovative energy efficiency and demand response programs.    Our energy efficiency programs place in the top quartile among the nation’s utilities for customer energy savings.   
Many of these programs are highly cost-effective, providing net-energy-cost savings for customers and helping them manage their electricity use more wisely. 

We have achieved significant reductions in customer energy use through our ComEd and PECO Smart Ideas^(SM) programs. To date, the ComEd Smart Ideas energy efficiency programs reduced customer energy use by more than 1,260,000 MWh. During 2010 PECO’s Smart Ideas program reduced its load by 607,000 MWh. 

Exelon 2020 in Action

Many initiatives are underway to help our retail customers and the communities we serve reduce their carbon footprint, including:

• CFL bulb replacement, appliance recycling, air conditioning cycling programs and other initiatives that have saved ComEd customers 350,000 MWh of electricity in the second year of the Smart Ideas program. 
• A residential real-time pricing program with 11,255 enrolled ComEd customers in 2010.
• Through PECO’s Smart Ideas program, more than 80,000 residential rebates have been processed and 3.5 million CFL bulbs sold through August 2010.
• The opening of the region’s first appliance recycling center in March 2010 by PECO.  It is the region’s first center for refrigerators and freezers and is available to PECO, PPL Electric Utilities and FirstEnergy customers.

Investing in New Technology

Beyond energy efficiency, ComEd and PECO have made enormous strides in the implementation of new technology, which is the first piece of a broader vision.

• PECO’s New Technology Investment. PECO’s $650 million technology initiative is one of the largest investments in the company’s more than 100 year history.  This technology will help us more efficiently operate our system and provide future new products and services to our customers. Work is underway at PECO to install new metering technology for all of our 1.6 million electric customers during the next 10 years -- 5 years earlier than required under Pennsylvania law, thanks to a $200 million stimulus grant awarded by the US Department of Energy.  The grant also allowed PECO to expand the number of meters being initially installed from 100,000 to 600,000. 
• ComEd’s Smart Meter Program. Over the next 10 years, ComEd will invest $1.3 billion in smart grid technologies, including the installation of smart meters and distribution automation equipment. These investments will result in improved system reliability, enhanced customer service and a modern electric distribution system – one that will support the greener, digital economy of the future.

Investing in Customer Energy-Efficiency Programs

Over the next five years, spending on energy efficiency and demand response across the Exelon companies is anticipated to reach $200 million per year in northern Illinois and southeastern Pennsylvania, resulting in an estimated cumulative energy savings of 3.8 million MWh and a reduction in peak load of 328 MW in ComEd territory and 355 MW in PECO territory.  In conjunction with these programs, the Exelon companies are making substantial investments in advanced metering technology and new pricing programs to help customers use energy more efficiently and reduce costs, while also improving system reliability. 

• ComEd’s Smart Ideas. ComEd invests $120 million a year in an energy efficiency program that targets residential and commercial energy savings. The program, Smart Ideas(SM), is expected to have reduced customer electricity use by 1.1 million MWh by the end of 2011. 
• ComEd’s Community Energy Challenge. ComEd challenged nine Illinois municipalities to compete to deliver the greatest per capita energy savings.  On July 15, 2010 ComEd announced the Village of Schaumburg was selected as the winner of the Challenge. Schaumburg, which received a $100,000 cash prize, was able to save about 6.8 million kilowatt-hours of energy and reduce its water consumption by 900,000 gallons.
• ComEd’s Home Energy Report. In addition, ComEd is piloting a Home Energy Report designed to motivate customers to save energy by comparing their energy consumption to other households in the community. This pilot program will test a relatively low-cost way of influencing energy consumption and customer habits.
• PECO Investments. PECO is investing $328 million over four years in their Smart Ideas energy efficiency program for residential and business customers through which they are pursuing a goal to reduce overall consumption by 3% and peak load by 4.5% by 2013.  By the end of 2011, it is estimated the program will have helped customers reduce electricity use by more than 1.07 million MWh.
• PECO’s Appliance Recycling Center. Since the opening of the region’s first recycling center in March 2010, more than 23,000 refrigerators, freezers and room air conditioners have been recycled, representing a savings of more than 36,000 MWh of electricity.

Expanding Green Product and Service Offerings

As part of Exelon 2020, we are expanding the range of green products and services offered to wholesale, retail and utility customers.

• Wholesale & Retail Customers.  In 2009, Exelon Energy introduced Emission-Free Energy Certificates (EFECs) as part of a pilot program.  The program allows commercial and industrial customers to compare air pollution impacts from low-carbon generation sources to the standard blend of generation resources available in the region.  In the past year, the program has sparked interest in EFECs as a competitive alternative to Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) in the voluntary marketplace. Exelon Generation’s fleet of nuclear generating plants is the primary source for EEFCs.
• Utility Customers. Our delivery companies continue to expand green product and service offerings.  Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) are included in the Exelon 2020 measure of GHG displacement.
  • In 2010, ComEd procured a total of 1,887,014 RECs, 80% of which came from wind generation located in Illinois and a portion of which came from the methane generation from Illinois landfills.
  • At the end of 2010, ComEd procured a total of 1,261,725 wind and solar RECs per year for a 20-year period scheduled to start in 2012.
  • PECO executed final contracts for 80,000 solar RECs over 10 years. This purchase adds to the more than 450,000 MWh of wind and other renewable
    energy credits PECO has purchased since 2008. 
  • PECO is the first Pennsylvania utility to enter into a long-term contract for solar credits, which it assumed to meet an obligation beginning in 2011.
  • PECO’s premium-priced product, PECO WIND®, sold more than 153,000 MWh of Pennsylvania Wind RECs to nearly 32,000 customers in 2010.