131,600 LED light fixtures to provide environmental, public safety benefits
Northern Illinois is brighter today, as ComEd has completed the installation and upgrade of all 131,600 ComEd-owned streetlights to Smart LED light fixtures. In addition to enhancing public safety as a result of clearer, brighter and more reliable light, the switch will save more than 79 gigawatt-hours of energy annually, the equivalent of removing more than 67 million pounds of carbon emissions from the atmosphere or planting 37,250 acres of trees.
“ComEd’s commitment to the communities we serve extends beyond simply keeping the lights on; we are actively partnering with communities to deliver innovative solutions that create a cleaner, brighter future for northern Illinois families and businesses,” said Gil C. Quiniones, CEO of ComEd. “Smart streetlights offer communities both environmental and safety benefits while lowering municipalities’ costs of energy and maintenance so that those funds can be used elsewhere.”
The Smart LED Streetlight upgrade program has been a five-year endeavor to upgrade ComEd-owned streetlights in 575 communities across northern Illinois. Part of ComEd’s award-winning Energy Efficiency program, the streetlight upgrade will improve the reliability and performance of the light fixtures, with new LED bulbs consuming one-third of the electricity and lasting 2-3 times longer than the previous high-pressure sodium or metal halide lights, while providing higher performance at lower operational cost.
“The installation of the new ComEd LED streetlights is a benefit to the whole community,” said Steven Mullany, mayor of Arlington Heights. “The visible difference is brighter lighting on the roadways and back lighting for our sidewalks. This change will make driving on residential streets and walking on sidewalks safer.”
Smart LED streetlights will allow municipalities to remotely and instantaneously dim lights for energy savings and brighten them for greater safety. These smart devices can also send immediate notifications if a light requires maintenance, and first responders can control the streetlights during emergency situations.
ComEd’s Energy Efficiency Program, which is funded in compliance with the state law, has saved customers more than $7 billion on their energy bills since 2008. The award-winning program has helped customers save nearly 65 million megawatt-hours of electricity, which is enough to power more than 7.4 million ComEd customers’ homes for one year.
This $75 million Smart LED Streetlight investment by ComEd will lead to $2.6 million in annual operational savings for the electric company. ComEd’s Smart LED Streetlights allow the utility to proactively monitor equipment to address outages or other issues in real time using ComEd’s AMI mesh network. This two-way communication system is integrated into the control nodes of the streetlights, mirroring the ComEd smart meter system.
ComEd is a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corporation (NASDAQ: EXC), a Fortune 200 energy company with approximately 10 million electricity and natural gas customers – the largest number of customers in the U.S. ComEd powers the lives of more than 4 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, Instagram and YouTube.
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