ComEd announced the first graduating class of the 10-week Power Up Academy, a new career training program launched in partnership with local workforce agency Revolution Workshop to prepare job seekers for entry-level technical-related roles to support the clean energy transition in Illinois.
With the clean energy transition poised to create as many as 150,000 new jobs in Illinois by 2050, ComEd says the training through the Power Up Academy is designed to boost the pipeline of talent for in-demand technical roles that will be needed to support the grid without requiring a college degree.
ComEd says Power Up Academy’s inaugural 15 graduates reflect the diversity of its service territory, nearly 90% of which are people of color, and more than half women. ComEd teamed up with program administrator Revolution Workshop to recruit local candidates for training in technical services.
Over the course of the program, ComEd says participants gained industry knowledge, spatial aptitude, and skills working with AutoCAD, a computer-aided design software that is a typical qualification for entry-level technical roles supporting the grid, including but not limited to: design tech, project coordinator and permitting analyst. Through ComEd’s collaboration with its educational partner, the City Colleges of Chicago, participants also received the Certified Project Management Certificate.
At the conclusion of the program, ComEd and corporate partners, Burns & McDonnell, HBK Engineering, KDM Engineering, Milhouse, Primera Engineers, and V3 held a job fair offering on-the-spot interviews with a goal of connecting program participants to positions aligned with technical skills after graduation. ComEd says it and sponsoring companies are expected to extend employment offers to qualifying participants.
ComEd has seen a boost in renewable adoption in its service territory. In October, it announced that more than 51,000 Distributed Energy Resources have been connected to its electric grid as of September, including more than 49,000 residential rooftop solar systems and related energy storage facilities.
This represents a large increase from 837 rooftop solar systems connected to the ComEd grid in 2016, reflecting an annual growth rate of 53%. Year to date, ComEd has received a record volume of nearly 15,000 applications to connect solar resources to its grid, and through September, nearly 11,000 systems have been completed, which ComEd says demonstrates the positive impact of climate legislation in Illinois and growing consumer interest in managing energy bills and reducing their carbon footprint with solar energy.
More than 1,300 commercial and industrial customers have connected solar systems to the ComEd grid, representing an annual growth rate of 20%. Additionally, more than 900 MW of DER have been connected to the system, and ComEd expects that will increase to over 1,900 MW by 2025 and to more than 3,600 MW by 2030, or enough energy to power approximately 120,000 US homes for one year.
In April, ComEd announced that its industrial and commercial customers, as well as schools and churches, had received a total of $100 million in rebates from the electric company for rooftop solar installations.
At the time, ComEd estimated that solar power on its grid, including rooftop and community solar systems, will grow five times from almost 650 MWs then to about 3,300 MWs by 2030. In 2022, ComEd received a record-setting 19,292 applications from residential, commercial, and industrial customers to connect solar panels and other distributed energy resources to ComEd’s grid, a 40% increase from the prior year.
