ComEd to pour $300M into EV charging by 2026 as CEJA deadlines loom

Alex Nitkin of The Daily Line

Energy Grid??? - July 7, 2022

The mega-utility firm ComEd will dedicate $100 million annually for the next three years to a host of efforts designed to speed Illinois through its transition to electric cars, leaders of the company announced Wednesday. 

The mega-utility firm ComEd will dedicate $100 million annually for the next three years to a host of efforts designed to speed Illinois through its transition to electric cars, leaders of the company announced Wednesday.

The spending commitment was the topline goal of the “Beneficial Electrification” plan that ComEd submitted to the Illinois Commerce Commission under a new state law and unveiled during a ribbon-cutting for new charging stations in Bronzeville on Wednesday. The rollout comes as state leaders push toward a goal of seeing one million electric vehicles on Illinois roads by 2030 and as ComEd faces pressure to get a handle on price hikes.

Michelle Blaise, ComEd’s senior vice president of technical services, headed up a group of company and local officials to cut the ribbon on a new electric vehicle charging station across the street from the 43 Green Chicago Housing Authority complex at 43rd Street and Calumet Avenue. One of five planned Bronzeville charging stations through a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, the new station’s location is symbolic of ComEd’s strategy of prioritizing underserved areas, Blaise said. 

“Enabling beneficial electrification is about doing our part to advance the goals of the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, or CEJA, including its goal of putting more than 1 million electric vehicles on the roads by 2030,” Blaise said at the ribbon-cutting event. “While ComEd is committed to serving every community within our service territory in northern Illinois, the Bronzeville community has special significance for us because it is the first of two ‘communities of the future’ we have been working with.” 

The other community is Rockford, where ComEd is sponsoring science and engineering classes for teens. 

ComEd and downstate energy utility Ameren were required by July 1 to submit Beneficial Electrification plans under the Clean Energy Jobs Act, which the Illinois General Assembly passed, and Gov. JB Pritzker signed into law in 2021. 

Their submissions follow 10 workshops the Illinois Commerce Commission hosted between November and February to “solicit input on the design” of the electrification plans, according to Victoria Crawford, a spokesperson for the commission.