In 2024, ComEd has delivered energy savings of approximately 100,000 MWh to customers through voltage optimization (VO), a form of energy efficiency enhancing the operation of appliances and equipment, resulting in reduced energy consumption and lower electricity bills.
The energy savings were equivalent to avoiding more than 33,000 metric tons of CO2 or powering more than 11,500 ComEd customer homes for one year. The VO program has produced energy savings of more than 1 million MWh, which is equivalent to avoiding more than 738 million pounds of CO2, contributing to climate change.
VO, a combination of advanced software, sensors and storage technology, is integrated into the ComEd smart grid to monitor and regulate voltage levels. ComEd upgraded an additional 31 substations in 2024, creating a total of 284 stations operating under VO on ComEd’s distribution system.
“Our voltage optimization program enables us to deliver a more precise level of power to meet the needs of customers, reducing their energy consumption, costs and carbon emissions while helping us proactively identify opportunities that support our reliability goals,” said Mark Baranek, senior vice president of technical services, ComEd. “VO is enabled by our smart grid technology and it’s one of the best investments we can make on behalf of our customers.”
VO has replaced legacy equipment on the ComEd system to control and lower the voltage range delivered to customers, enabling them to realize energy savings of around 2-3% annually. VO requires no behavioral changes by the customer and has no impact on lifestyle while delivering energy savings across all customer classes.
The ComEd VO program started with an analysis of the entire ComEd distribution system, which identified approximately 400 substations, where VO deployment demonstrated the potential to create cost savings for customers. ComEd is projected to complete VO station activation on the initial 400 substations by 2028.
Once this first phase of the program is completed, the anticipated annual energy savings is projected to exceed 1,400 GWh. Based on the average US household energy use of approximately 12 MWh per year, the energy savings projected to be realized by ComEd customers through VO is equivalent to the annual power usage of about 115,000 households.
ComEd has a VO team, which performs the initial commissioning of new systems as wll as the devices and looks after the entire program. The VO team collaborates with different internal groups, such as Capacity Planning and Energy Efficiency and also works with Distribution Automation (DA).
DA uses smart switches installed on the electrical grid to automatically reroute electricity around potential problem areas, minimizing the frequency and duration of power outages for customers. In 2024, DA devices avoided over 2.2 million outages on ComEd’s system.
The annual VO planning process reviews and prioritizes stations that will enable the team to meet annual energy savings goals. ComEd also works with several local engineering and construction specialists on the design and implementation of the VO program at the substation and distribution feeder level.
