Illinois utilities are to share ComEd’s Itron advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) in the state in a bid to increase use of smart technologies in the provision of energy, improve efficiencies and reduce carbon emissions.

ComEd (Commonwealth Edison) is the primary electric provider for northern Illinois and sole electric provider in Chicago. Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas, subsidiaries of WEC Energy Group, are working together with ComEd to share its existing Itron AMI multi-purpose network to support smart technology to streamline natural gas meter reading.

Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas serve more than 1 million customers in the greater Chicago area and secure access to ComEd’s existing network means there will be no need to build a separate, single-purpose network.

Up to now, Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas have read their customers’ meters by driving a vehicle down every street and transmitting data from each meter via radio signal. AMI will reduce utility vehicles from the street, eliminating more than 580,000 driving miles per year and 626 tons of carbon emissions per year. The estimated $5.5 million per year cost savings from the reduced driving and other efficiencies will offset the cost of AMI.

With more frequent access to meter data, customers of Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas will gain better visibility into their energy consumption.

“The smart grid and advanced metering infrastructure are delivering benefits not only for ComEd customers but for other Illinois utilities, and we’re eager to demonstrate the value of these investments to the customers we share with Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas,” said Terence Donnelly, president and COO at ComEd.

“Using AMI will reduce costs for customers and enhance our level of service,” said Torrence Hinton, president at Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas.
“Combined with the environmental benefits, this is a great step forward for everyone we serve, and across the Chicago region.”

“The state of Illinois is emerging as a model for AMI and for other utilities on how innovative networked solutions can be leveraged to reach sustainability, operational goals and deliver end customer benefits,” said John Marcolini, senior vice president of Networks at Itron. “We are thrilled to watch these three innovative utilities exemplify how sharing network infrastructure and collaborating across utility providers can create greener, more resilient and sustainable communities.”

This gas meter modernisation project launched in 2022. In the coming years Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas will upgrade 1 million endpoints to make them compatible with the ComEd IIoT network. Since 2013, Itron and ComEd have collaborated in deploying smart utility and city solutions.