ComEd is again being hailed as a national leader for its work to drive economic growth and job creation across northern Illinois, according to new rankings out today by Site Selection Magazine, which named ComEd as one of the Top 20 utilities in economic development. Based on a review of corporate relocations and expansion from the last year and its research into utilities with active economic development departments, Site Selection finds ComEd is once again in the upper echelon of utilities in attracting new businesses, jobs and investments and for overall support of economic development.
“Businesses need access to clean, reliable and affordable power, along with a skilled workforce and strong infrastructure – and they can get it all in ComEd’s service region,”said Gil C. Quiniones, President and CEO of ComEd.“ComEd is proud to deliver nation-leading reliability and clean energy infrastructure, powering economic growth in the region, while creating jobs and opportunity for people across northern Illinois.”
This marks the 10th time ComEd has earned the Top Utilities recognition – a testament to the company’s track record of providing best in the nation electrical service to over 9 million people, or 4.3 million total customers, including some of the largest companies in the world headquartered in northern Illinois. In 2023 alone, ComEd helped secure 15 new commercial projects collectively set to add 4,385 jobs at their facilities and more than $8.6 billion in local investment.
“Power provision is vying with workforce as the most pressing issue for industrial companies nationwide amid a glut of major industrial facility projects such as data centers, semiconductor fabs and EV/battery supply chain projects,” said Adam Bruns, editor in chief of Site Selection. “As a supplement to our annual Top Utilities findings, this year we asked utility economic development leaders how their teams are working with operations and external stakeholders to address these concerns. Just like the day-to-day solutions their team develops for customers and communities, ComEd’s response is compelling.”
In this year’s rankings, Site Selection finds ComEd’s investments in clean energy infrastructure continue to drive new levels of business growth to the region every year. This includes strong growth by high-impact industries like data centers, quantum computing, logistics and manufacturing – all of which depend upon larger amounts of power availability to keep pace with the needs of their customers and today’s fast-growing business technology.
“Access to clean reliable power is a key factor for companies making site location decisions,” said Intersect Illinois Interim CEO Paulina San Millan. “We’re fortunate to have ComEd as an economic development partner, and to see its strong commitment to economic growth in the region being recognized nationally.”
ComEd’s continued grid investments drive new business to the area every year – with 2023 setting new records for the level of investment by these businesses, projected to be over $8 billion, and 2024 set to be another strong year for business attraction for ComEd and its partners in the region. Recent investments by ComEd continue to make northern Illinois a compelling destination for new and expanding businesses, including:
- Reliable Infrastructure – Backed by our nation-leading reliability, ComEd’s grid is ready to support the transition toward more clean and renewable energy sources. Since ComEd started smart grid improvements more than a decade ago, it has improved overall reliability by more than 70 percent, helping customers avoid nearly 21.7 million outages and save more than $3.8 billion in outage-related costs.
- Access to Clean Energy: ComEd’s region is a national leader in clean energy generation, with the ability to meet 96 percent or more of our customers’ energy consumption today with decarbonized energy sources, with plans to reach 100 percent thanks to CEJA. With Illinois a net energy exporter, ComEd has an abundance of clean energy to serve customers’ growing needs for the future, as digital demands and the move toward electrification will continue to change energy consumption patterns. Additionally, solar generation continues to expand, with ComEd recently reaching 1 GW in Distributed Energy Resources (DER) interconnected to the grid, helping to place Illinois first among Midwestern states based on DER and second for total capacity, according to the Solar Energy Industry Association.
- Focus on Affordability and Sustainability: ComEd is focused on ensuring the clean energy transition is equitable and affordable, and residential bills remain comparable to those of other utilities serving the nation’s top metropolitan areas. For ComEd commercial and industrial customers, average bills are 19% less and 44% less, respectively, than bills in the top 20 metropolitan areas, and less than the national averages by similar proportions. With many businesses focused on sustainability plans for the future, ComEd offers a range of clean energy for electrification of transportation and buildings, solar rebates, and an extensive energy efficiency portfolio which has helped customers save over $9 billion on energy usage to date. More information on incentives can be found at www.ComEd.com/bizincentives.
"We are consistently approached by companies with substantial power needs that are looking to move to our area," said Timothy Nugent, President / CEO of the Economic Alliance of Kankakee County. "ComEd has risen to the challenge of meeting demands and bringing these businesses here. Their ability to navigate complex projects and deliver the best outcomes for their clients is crucial for economic development and the growth of our community."
“Boone County is seeing a flurry of new, exciting business expansion projects that will bring jobs and economic opportunity to our area, and we recognize the vital role that access to power has in their decisions on where to locate,” said Pamela Lopez-Fettes, Executive Director of Growth Dimensions, an economic development organization supporting Belvidere and Boone County Illinois. “With today’s businesses increasingly dependent upon reliable and clean energy, the partnership we share with ComEd is critical to attracting and enabling sustainable economic opportunity for our region.”
ComEd is part of the Exelon corporation, the nation’s largest utility company serving over 10 million customers nationally, including PECO in Philadelphia, also named as part of this year’s Site Selection rankings. Recognition of the strength of the Exelon system is attributed to the investments that are being made across the system – including northern Illinois and the mid-Atlantic – to ensure continued customer reliability in the face of extreme weather events, and to prepare businesses and families for the clean energy transition.
To read the 2024 Top Utilities Rankings, click here.
About ComEd
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, Instagram, LinkedIn,X, and YouTube.
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