We encourage a culture of innovation at Exelon, bringing together passionate employees and external experts to develop creative solutions that advance the future of energy.
Read on to learn about our initiatives, investments and innovation champions.
Here’s What We’re Working on
Microsoft Hololens
An augmented reality headset. Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology that projects computer-generated visual content into a user’s view of the real world, thus augmenting what they see with additional information. We’re exploring how to use the Hololens AR headset to guide workers through routine tasks in a hands-free way, through timely holographic information.
Blockchain
A digital, decentralized transaction ledger. Blockchain technology enables secure transactions of digital assets. We’re exploring blockchain’s ability to flatten traditional hierarchies, reduce time delay and minimize the cost of doing business. One way we’re doing that today is through our partnership with the non-profit Energy Web Foundation, who is creating a blockchain application to track renewable energy and associated carbon assets for the certificate of origin markets. The markets will use the new common platform to simplify and expand the tracking process across multiple international regions.
Digital Worker Initiative
Using technology to enhance our workforce. This initiative focuses on the human side of technology, and how to employ it to improve worker productivity, safety and knowledge sharing. Recent projects include Udentify, a mobile app that will eventually use artificial intelligence (AI) to recognize system defects from worker submitted images; and Hawkeye, a co-innovation with GE to investigate potential analytic apps that could have a positive impact on outage performance.
Safety Peer Group
Testing new and innovative methods for improving safety performance. The Safety Peer Group works to identify successful pilot programs or new practices that can then be adopted by the entire corporation. For example, BGE Home piloted the SuitX, an exoskeleton system designed to reduce musculoskeletal injuries. Use of the system may provide employees with protection from strains and sprains, even employees with previous injuries or illnesses.
Constellation Technology Ventures (CTV)
Investing in emerging energy technology companies. CTV invests in growth-stage companies representing technological or business model innovations that complement or disrupt our core businesses, with the goal of providing new solutions to our companies and our customers. An example investment is XL, the leading company in connected fleet electrification solutions for commercial and municipal fleets. XL’s proprietary electrified technology increases fuel economy for commercial trucks by 25 to 50 percent.
TechEXChange
Exploring transformational technology. TechEXChange is the combined group of teams across the company charged with exploring the transformational technology that can upend energy markets. One example of how we promote early adoption of promising new technologies is our partnership with Bloom Energy to build fuel cell projects at commercial facilities. In 2017, the TechEXChange also focused on early-stage technologies such as alternative fuels like hydrogen to drive value for our customers now and in the future.
Innovation Expo
Bringing employees together to learn and share. Our Innovation Team hosted the sixth annual Innovation Expo in Washington D.C., focusing on the theme “Customer Centricity,” with more than 2,700 people in attendance. More than 500 employees submitted their ideas on how to provide reliable, safe and clean energy to our customers. Project finalists included an innovative way to remove carbon from the atmosphere and collect it for other uses, and an analytics platform that uses hyper-local data from past outages and current weather conditions to respond to an outage rapidly.