Divine Infant Jesus School of Westchester Named Grand Place Winner of ComEd's $10,000 Earth Month Challenge

Challenge helps students and parents learn about smart meters and how to save energy and money

CHICAGO (June 1, 2015) – ComEd today announced the winners of its $10,000 Earth Month Challenge. Divine Infant Jesus School of Westchester was awarded the grand prize and received $5,000 from ComEd, along with an end-of-the-year ice cream party for the entire school.

Nearly 6,000 students from 17 elementary schools within ComEd’s smart meter deployment area participated in the Challenge, which ran during the month of April. The Challenge was in the form of a contest in which students, with assistance from their parents and teachers, earned points for their school for completing energy-related tasks, saving energy at home and discussing the Challenge in social media.

Some of the Challenge’s activities performed by students and parents included viewing their home’s smart meter’s electricity usage information online at ComEd.com/MyAccount, switching inefficient incandescent light bulbs to ENERGY STAR™ LED or CFL bulbs, and saving electricity by changing furnace filters or using a programmable thermostat. In all, participating student homes saved more than 19,900 kWh of electricity – that’s enough electricity to power two homes for an entire year.

“I was very impressed with the presentation at our opening assembly for the Earth Month Challenge,” said Leonard Gramarossa, Principal of Divine Infant Jesus School. “The students, faculty and parents in attendance were motivated and showed a great deal of enthusiasm for the project as well as for the value of conserving our energy sources. Each week the excitement increased as our project leader and teachers kept on motivating our students to do their best to encourage their parents to be energy smart. All in all a very worthwhile learning experience and we are very fortunate to be the top school this year.”

“ComEd recently installed the one millionth smart meter in our service area,” said Val Jensen, senior vice president of Customer Operations, ComEd. “This competition has helped many families understand the value that smart meters and smart technologies are bringing to northern Illinois; and the power that they now have to better manage energy consumption and save money.”

Four other elementary schools will share the remaining $5,000 in prize money. They are St. Viator Elementary in Chicago, Tarkington School of Excellence in Chicago, St. Cyprian from River Grove, and Our Lady of Grace in Chicago.

For more information on ComEd’s $10,000 Earth Month Challenge, visit ComEd.com/EMC.

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Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) is a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC), the nation’s leading competitive energy provider, with approximately 7.8 million customers. ComEd provides service to approximately 3.8 million customers across northern Illinois, or 70 percent of the state’s population. For more information visit ComEd.com, and connect with the company on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.