Customer Innovation

Creating solutions for a cleaner energy future, for everyone.

About Customer Innovation

We’re investing in concepts that explore or demonstrate new ways to make energy efficiency, electrification, demand response, distributed energy resources and other cutting-edge demand-side management opportunities more accessible, affordable and effective for all customers.

How It Works

We’re here to help you bring your ideas to life.

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Develop your idea

Check out our helpful resources for guidance on how to develop your idea.

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Submit your Idea

The Customer Innovation team will review your submission and be in touch with any questions or suggestions to help refine the idea.

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Implement

If your idea is approved, it becomes a project that the Customer Innovation team will work with you to implement and evaluate.

Project Types

We are open to research and pilot projects on market-ready or near-market-ready technologies and innovative delivery methods that overcome current barriers to customer adoption. The concept should be aligned with our mission priorities and have the potential to generate significant energy savings or reduce or shift energy consumption, or are projects that aim to reduce or eliminate barriers to the deployment of key technologies and behaviors.

Projects can take a variety of forms such as primary research, savings measurement, load-shifting capacity measurement, technology installation or delivery, or customer engagement strategies.

Market Characterization

Projects designed to characterize a specific market, in terms of key actors, size, etc.

Lab Testing

Projects designed to test the performance of a technology or concept in a laboratory or non-field setting.

Customer Research

Research conducted to provide an understanding of a specific customer segment or customer experience.

Field Tests & Demonstrations

Projects designed to test and measure the field performance of a technology or concept in real-world conditions.

Scaled Deployments

Projects piloting the implementation, delivery / deployment strategy and experience of a new offering.

Market Development

Projects designed to enable portfolio integration and wide scale market adoption.

Efforts

The full breadth of areas covered by the Customer Innovation team are listed below. Hover over the purple dots to learn more about each area of effort.

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Energy Efficiency

Explore and validate "next generation" residential, commercial and industrial energy efficiency technologies and program designs

Distributed Energy Resources Integration

Create opportunities for adoption of or for engagement with distributed energy resources, or install technologies to enable adoption of distributed energy resources, including electric vehicles

Peak Load & Energy Management

Identify methods and technologies to reduce and shift load at peak times, in particular through rates and DSM strategies that enable real time energy management

Electrification

Advance electrification for residential, commercial and industrial customers, including identifying viable technologies and equipment setups/strategies for various segments, generating adoption, overcoming common barriers, assessing relevant rate structures, etc.

Market Transformation

Identify viable market transformation savings opportunities in ComEd territory

Income Eligible Customer Solutions

Create cost effective benefits for income eligible customers through energy efficiency, electrification and customer engagement

Visit the Resources page for insights on our specific focus areas for 2023 and 2024.

Who is Eligible

If you have an energy efficiency, building electrification, demand flexibility or related customer engagement idea, we’d like to hear from you. Participants range from entrepreneurs, manufacturers, designers and builders, research labs, small outreach groups, universities, community-based organizations and demand-side management program administrators. If your idea is approved, the ComEd Customer Innovation team will help you implement and evaluate your project.

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Getting to 2030

Customer Innovation supports ComEd’s 2030 priorities of decarbonization, flexibility and resilience, efficiency and affordability, empowerment and equity, and intuitive energy choices for customers.