ComEd Debuts Future Energy Showcase at African Festival of Arts

Company celebrates Festival’s 26th Anniversary and presents exhibits highlighting innovation, technologies and proposed plans for Community of the Future

ComEd today announced that it will present its Future Energy Showcase at the upcoming African Festival of the Arts during Labor Day weekend, September 4-7, in Washington Park.

The Annual African Festival of the Arts (AFA) is a spectacular celebration of arts and culture from across the African Diaspora. It is the largest neighborhood festival in Chicago, and said to be the largest of its kind in the U.S. Thousands of people from around the world come to Chicago's Washington Park Labor Day Weekend for this authentic African experience. This year marks the 26th anniversary of the festival.

“We are proud to support the African Festival of the Arts and continue its long history of bringing rich collections of music, art and inspiring future generations,” said Marlow Colvin, vice president of Governmental Affairs for ComEd. “We’re particularly pleased to be able to showcase service-enhancing technologies and money-saving opportunities for our customers as part of our Future Energy Showcase in the Festival’s Green Village Pavilion.”

As part of ComEd’s Future Energy Showcase in the Green Village Pavilion, guests will have the opportunity to learn about ComEd plans, programs and proposed initiatives that offer greater control over their energy usage and costs. They also will see how ComEd is transforming the electric grid and advances in technology that will help crystalize what could become part of the Community of the Future to make customer’s lives better, safer and more convenient. The Showcase also highlights ComEd’s educational and job-creating programs that are focused on creating the workforce of the future.

“As an innovation and technology company, ComEd is committed to promoting opportunities in the fields of science, technology, math and science (STEM) and engaging our communities to envision the possibilities available to them, including future careers in the energy industry and at ComEd,” said Anne Pramaggiore, ComEd president and CEO. “ComEd continues to deliver on the promise of the Smart Grid by creating jobs in the fields of construction, engineering and technology as well as developing important partnerships like the one we initiated with Chicago Public Schools to provide high school students with job training at our new south side Chicago Training Center set to open early next year.”

Passed by the Illinois General Assembly in 2011, the Smart Grid Law is a $2.6 billion, 10-year project to digitize ComEd’s infrastructure, providing resiliency, smart substations and better serving the utility’s customers. EIMA investments since 2012 have resulted in more than 3.3 million avoided customer outages and an estimated $175 million in societal savings. Other Smart Grid benefits include record reliability for the company and the creation of 3,600 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs in Illinois. Earlier this year, ComEd also filed for a delivery rate reduction with the ICC that will decrease customer rates by an unprecedented $50 million in January of 2016.

Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) is a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC), the nation’s leading competitive energy provider, with approximately 6.6 million customers. ComEd provides service to approximately 3.8 million customers across northern Illinois, or 70 percent of the state’s population. For more information visit ComEd.com, and connect with the company on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

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