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 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. Through 2011, the ComEd Smart Ideas energy efficiency programs reduced customer energy use by more than 1,260,000 MWh and PECO’s Smart Ideas program reduced its customers' electricity usage by 993,000 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 reduce ComEd customers' electricity consumption through their Smart Ideas program. 
• Through 2012, ComEd's Smart Ideas energy efficiency programs helped customers save more than 4 million MWh.
• Through PECO’s Smart Ideas program, residential rebates for more efficient appliances and CFL bulbs sales have helped their customers reduce electricity consumption.

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. The Energy Infrastructure Modernization Act (EIMA), enacted in 2011, is a 10-year, $2.6 billion Infrastructure Investment Plan. EIMA authorizes ComEd to invest $1.3 billion to strengthen the electric system and another $1.3 billion to add new, digital smart grid and advanced meter technology that will transform the delivery of electricity to homes and businesses throughout northern Illinois.

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 $160 million per year in northern Illinois and southeastern Pennsylvania, resulting in an estimated cumulative energy savings of 25.4 million MWh and a combined reduction in peak load of 500 MW in the ComEd and PECO territories.  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 per year in an energy efficiency program that targets residential, commercial, and industrial energy savings. Through the program, customers saved 2.2 million MWh in 2012 and 4.3 million MWh since the launch of the program in 2008. 
• ComEd’s Earth Month Challenge. In 2012, ComEd launched its annual Earth Month Challenge. In its inaugural year, five schools participated in the program where students and their families could earn points for their school for completing energy-related tasks. The school with the highest ranking at the end of the contest received a $5,000 grand prize from ComEd.
• ComEd’s Smart Home Showcase. In 2012, ComEd launched the Smart Home Showcase, a contest which awards up to four customers within the communities that are part of the company’s smart meter pilot program with free, smart home makeovers valued at approximately $45,000 each. Designed to demonstrate the value of smart grid, ComEd will evaluate the impact the energy-efficient equipment will have on the winners’ energy use, bill amounts and lifestyle.
• 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.  
• PECO’s Appliance Recycling Center. PECO opened the region’s first appliance recycling center in March 2010. It provides recycling for refrigerators and freezers and is available to PECO, PPL Electric Utilities and FirstEnergy customers. 

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.
  • Exelon's Utilities purchase Renewable Energy Credits to green the mix of electricity that they deliver to their customers.  In 2011, ComEd  purchased 2.02 million RECs and PECO purchased 225,000 RECs.  PECO has been recognized as the first Pennsylvania utility to enter into a long-term contract for solar credits.  These RECs have been procured on behalf of Exelon's customers in accordance with the state portfolio supply statutory requirements.
  • In 2011, 21,000 PECO customers purchased more than 91,500 RECs from energy generated by Pennsylvania wind farms under the PECO’s premium-priced product, PECO WIND®. Based on its 2010 sales, PECO Wind was ranked the 5th largest green energy supply program in the U.S. last year by the DOE National Renewable Energy Laboratory.