U.S. Department of Energy Earmarks $5 Million for ComEd Smart Grid Solar Pilot

CHICAGO, Oct. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Last week the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
announced that ComEd could receive up to $5 million in American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding for the utility's Smart Grid solar pilot. This
one-year project would examine customer responses to pricing signals, the
impact of renewable distributed energy system, and how they can best be
integrated into a future Smart Grid system.

ComEd's solar pilot would include approximately 200 customers, most of whom
would be among the first 140,000 ComEd customers to receive a new smart meter
through ComEd's proposed Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) pilot, which
currently is under consideration by the Illinois Commerce Commission. A smart
meter is a digital electric meter that collects usage information every 30
minutes and sends that information to ComEd through a secure
telecommunications connection.

A group of customers in the pilot would receive solar photovoltaic systems,
some with energy storage capability, and be placed on a real-time electricity
price and net metering program which lets customers get credit for excess
electricity generated by their solar energy systems that goes back to ComEd's
grid. Other customers in the pilot will receive only an energy monitoring
display.

"ComEd's solar pilot will be a sophisticated study of how renewable
distributed energy systems can be integrated into the power grid," said Anne
Pramaggiore, president and chief operating officer, ComEd. "We are proud to be
a pioneer in leveraging groundbreaking technologies and identifying ways to
provide our customers a smarter and greener electric delivery system."

ComEd's Smart Grid solar pilot will:
-- Study how integration of photovoltaic panels and energy storage into
AMI
systems will affect reliability of the distribution system.
-- Observe and evaluate the way consumers engage with technology and
respond to price signals during peak and non-peak demand times.

-- Assess customer attitudes toward adopting new and emerging
technologies.

The estimated award to ComEd for the solar pilot is $5 million, but the final
grant amount is pending negotiations between ComEd and the DOE on project
details. Acceptance of the grant is also contingent on approval of ComEd's AMI
pilot proposal.

Pending these approvals, the pilot would begin in early 2010. Four groups of
customers will be selected from customers located within the AMI pilot
footprint, which includes nine towns serviced by its Maywood operating center
and the Humboldt Park area in Chicago. .

Partners on the ComEd pilot include the Illinois Sustainable Technology
Center, which will survey participants to assess attitudes toward adopting
new/emerging technologies; Argonne National Lab for data gathering and
analysis; and GridPoint for battery storage systems and photovoltaic and
energy monitoring.

Grant funding would come from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of
2009 (ARRA), of which $117.6 million is allocated for disbursement by the DOE
in support of innovative solar energy technology proposals.

Separate from this application, ComEd also applied for $175 million in ARRA
federal stimulus funding to more than double the AMI pilot project and expand
investment in other advanced automation technology to make the transmission
and distribution systems "smarter" and more reliable.

Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) is a unit of Chicago-based Exelon
Corporation (NYSE: EXC), one of the nation's largest electric utilities with
approximately 5.4 million customers. ComEd provides service to approximately
3.8 million customers across northern Illinois, or 70 percent of the state's
population.

SOURCE ComEd

ComEd Media Relations, +1-312-394-3500