The COVID-19 pandemic is front of mind for all of us and will have lasting effects. As we work together to combat this crisis, we also continue to work together to combat another crisis – climate change. With more severe storms, more heat waves and higher incidents of flooding, we’re facing significant challenges across the globe and in our own backyards. And, while the impacts are real and being felt today, I am optimistic about the future and our collective ability to make change. Thinking back on my 30-year career working to advance clean energy and climate change solutions, I can’t remember a time when we’ve had more momentum or more opportunity.
Over the years, states and cities looked to local energy companies to deliver safe, reliable and affordable power, but this has evolved. While we’re still meeting our core responsibility, we’re also leaning in and stepping up to provide new clean energy services and choices that power a cleaner and brighter tomorrow and making investments to address climate change and environmental inequities.
As leaders in the energy industry, we are deploying new innovative technologies and moving forward with dozens of projects that are connecting our communities and helping to reduce climate pollution, increase the overall resilience of our system and prepare our communities for a world with more extreme, less predictable weather.
We are committed to meeting our customers’ evolving energy needs by building a smarter, stronger and cleaner energy system. A smarter energy grid serves as a reliable common platform that connects customers to a variety of energy services and solutions, including smart city technologies, and utilizes automation to identify emerging issues and restore customers more quickly. A stronger energy grid is able to better withstand extreme weather – including storms and heat – increasing system reliability for all customers. And a cleaner energy grid is one that supports the integration of more energy from large scale renewables, as well as community and private solar, energy efficiency, and electric transportation. These efforts are underway in every state and jurisdiction we serve.
We know that both individual and collective action is required to address the climate crisis. We can all do our part by running our homes and businesses more efficiently and addressing our personal carbon footprint.
In fact, in New Jersey, we launched an effort to educate customers and communities on the state’s ambitious clean energy goals and the role that we and the other state’s utilities are playing, and what individuals can do, to achieve them.
On this 50th anniversary of Earth Day, we’re affirming our commitment as your local energy partner to power our communities in a way that protects the environment. Let’s recognize our collective power for change as we advance our clean energy future together.
Melissa Lavinson is the Senior Vice President, Governmental and External Affairs, Pepco Holdings, an Exelon company