ComEd to Participate in Green Button Initiative

CHICAGO, March 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- ComEd today announced it will participate in the Green Button initiative, a voluntary effort by utilities to provide energy usage data to customers in a standard format to help them make informed decisions about how to reduce energy consumption and save money. 

Participating utilities make the Green Button icon available on their website, where customers can download their energy consumption data.  Launched in January, Green Button is based on a consensus industry standard that was created through a public-private partnership with the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology.  The Green Button icon will be accessible at ComEd.com in the fourth quarter of this year.

ComEd's participation in Green Button comes as the utility embarks on a 10-year, $2.6 billion investment program authorized by the recently passed Energy Infrastructure Modernization Act. Through these investments, ComEd will strengthen and modernize the electrical infrastructure in northern Illinois and transform the system with digital smart grid technologies.  Work began in January. The utility will install 130,000 smart meters this year. Beginning in 2013, it will install approximately 400,000 annually until the smart grid build out is complete in 2021.

Green Button is expected to foster innovation by third-party apps developers and providers of energy management services.  Customers can provide their energy usage data to energy suppliers and other energy companies to participate in programs that can further reduce their energy costs. 

"The opportunity to join the Green Button initiative comes at a perfect time as we prepare to roll out smart meters this year," said Anne Pramaggiore, president and CEO, ComEd, who today joined a White House roundtable discussion hosted by U.S. Energy Secretary Dr. Steven Chu, focused on the Green Button initiative.  "Green Button will reinforce our efforts to educate customers and help them take full advantage of the benefits and added value that smart grid technology will deliver."  ComEd's sister utility companies in Exelon, including BGE, based in Baltimore, and PECO, based in Philadelphia, also are participating in the Green Button initiative.

While focused mostly on the residential market, Green Button has the potential to touch every American, and to expand to commercial and industrial consumers. As Energy Secretary Dr. Chu has said, "Developing applications and services to help consumers understand and control their energy use is a field ripe for American innovation."

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.

SOURCE ComEd