Politics & Government

Innovations in ComEd Corridor

Hoping to cut down on outages, power company rolls out more pilot programs.

Oak Park and River Forest homeowners hammered by power outages during the hot and stormy summer should expect some relief from ComEd, officials said. 

That's because the power company is ramping up its so-called Smart Grid, a package of pilot programs aimed at improving reliability in the 10-community area that ComEd calls the "Smart Grid Innovation Corridor."

The communities include Oak Park, River Forest, Bellwood, Berwyn, Broadview, Forest Park, Hillside, Maywood, Melrose Park and Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood. 

Find out what's happening in Oak Park-River Forestwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

ComEd plans to make its Oak Park substation "intelligent," meaning it will be packed with new digital devices designed to "improve reliability and streamline maintenance," according to a news release. 

The conversion is expected to be completed in December. 

Find out what's happening in Oak Park-River Forestwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"The main benefit is increased reliability," said K.C. Poulos, Oak Park's sustainability manager. "[The programs] anticipate problems and correct and contain outages."

Also included in ComEd's pilot programs are the automated restoration of outages through a new "distribution automation" system and an experiment with "photovoltaic technologies," under which the company will study solar energy produced from panels installed on select residences. 

The company recently asked a pool of more than 25,000 customers in the "innovation corridor" to apply for free solar panels, free installation and software to monitor their home's energy use. 

Only 100 homes will be selected for the program, which is partially funded by a U.S. Department of Energy grant. 

All of the "Smart Grid" programs will depend largely on the monitoring technologies offered by the smart meters recently distributed to the 130,000 homes in the corridor serviced by ComEd .


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