ComEd and Itron Accelerate Smart Cities in Illinois Through Smart Streetlights

In a recent announcement, Itron and ComEd, which delivers energy to more than 4 million customers in Chicago and northern Illinois, together launched an initiative to modernize municipal lighting and drive smart city development in northern Illinois.

Itron reportedly will connect and manage up to 140,000 municipal smart streetlights across ComEd’s service territory, leveraging Itron’s multi-application IPv6 networking platform that ComEd is using for a variety of smart grid applications.

 “By deploying an intelligent streetlight network across our service territory, we are helping reduce energy use for streetlights, saving money for our customers and setting the stage for smart city applications and services,” said Michelle Blaise, SVP, Technical Services, ComEd. “Itron’s proven expertise and solutions are helping us drive innovation and connect our customers and communities.”

The smart streetlights will be managed using Itron’s Streetlight.Vision Central Management System through a Software-as-a-Service model. This announcement supports the Illinois Commerce Commission’s objective to establish “smart” as the new standard for all streetlights that ComEd owns in northern Illinois. ComEd will take advantage of the solution to reduce the cost of managing and maintaining the lights and to enhance the quality of service, reliability for community members through remote brightening and dimming features.

“The state of Illinois is emerging as a model for how IoT and smart city deployments should be done, thanks in part to initiatives ComEd is driving,” said Sharelynn Moore, SVP, networked solutions, Itron. “We are honored to be able to take part in programs that establish the foundation for achieving truly connected smart cities, and we look forward to our continued efforts with ComEd to help set the standard for smart utilities as we expand our reach into the broader industrial IoT segment.”