First-Rate Utilities
Open market for electricity
Companies in Illinois can choose their supplier of electric generation. That means you can choose the supplier that best meets your needs and/or preferences, including source/method of generation, cost, incentives and combination of services. Competition is not available in our neighboring states, meaning that businesses are locked in to the rates and services that the local utility has set.
Lake County is proud to be served by ComEd as its electricity transmission and distribution utility. ComEd is part of the Exelon Corporation, headquartered in Chicago. The ComEd service territory covers 11,411 square miles in Northern Illinois, stretching from the Wisconsin border to as far south as Pontiac, Ill., and from the Indiana border to the Mississippi River. It covers approximately 70 percent of the customers in Illinois and the vast majority of the state’s industrial companies. ComEd’s transmission and distribution systems are very robust, with more than 5,000 miles of overhead transmission lines and approximately 42,400 miles of overhead distribution lines. ComEd is committed to safely delivering reliable electricity throughout the 400+ communities it serves across Northern Illinois, including the City of Chicago.
Since 1999, ComEd has spent nearly $2 billion on significant investments in upgrading and maintaining our transmission and distribution systems, and the company plans to spend another $2 billion or more on the system over the next five years. Consequently, ComEd has significantly reduced its average number of outages per customer by 40% since 1999, yielding a stronger reliability statistic than New York, Boston, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and many other municipalities. Furthermore, ComEd’s average length of outage has plummeted 60%, giving it yet another reliability statistic that outperforms utilities in other parts of the country.
Telecommunications
Lake County is served by SBC Communications Inc., a diversified communications company, owning several of the world's leading data, voice and Internet services providers.
Through world-class networks, SBC companies provide a full range of voice, data, networking and e-business services. A Fortune 30 company, SBC Communications, Inc. owns America's leading high-speed DSL provider and one of the nation's leading Internet Service Providers. SBC affiliates provide wireline service to customers in 13 states - covering about one-third of the U.S. population. Nearly one half of the Fortune 500 are headquartered in states served by SBC companies. SBC offers Lake County companies the opportunity to obtain their long distance and local service from a single source provider.
Natural gas
Nicor Gas and North Shore Gas (Peoples Energy) provide safe and reliable natural gas service for the residents and businesses of Lake County.
Nicor Gas is one of the largest natural gas distribution companies in the country, serving two million customers in 641 communities. The company operates a network of more than 30,000 miles of pipelines, connected to the largest underground storage facilities in the country. This helps ensure reliable natural gas delivery to customers year round. Nicor's stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol GAS. Nicor is included in the Standard and Poor's 500 Index as well as having its bonds rated AA, the highest rating given to a natural gas distribution company.
Peoples Energy, a member of the S&P 500, is a diversified energy company headquartered in Chicago. Its gas distribution businesses — comprised of Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas — serves about one million retail customers in Chicago and northeastern Illinois. Combined, Peoples Gas and its sister company North Shore Gas serve the energy needs of more than one million customers in Chicago and 54 communities in northeastern Illinois. In February of 2004, Peoples Energy received the highest rating awarded by Governance Metrics International (GMI), an independent governance rating agency, for the company's strong corporate governance. The survey included ratings of 2,100 companies from 20 countries. Peoples Energy was one of only 22 companies to achieve the highest rating of 10.
|
