Exelon Corporation said Wednesday that it had signed a five-year cooperative research and development agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory that will advance clean energy and contribute to the development of a next-generation energy grid.
Given its status as the nation's largest utility “and operator of the largest clean energy fleet,” said Exelon President and Chief Executive Officer Chris Crane, “we have a unique responsibility to reimagine the energy grid and lead our industry in the exploration, development and deployment of the next generation of clean, diverse energy technologies.”
The agreement is the embodiment of lofty goals for the future. It is meant to combine Exelon's understanding of the consumer marketplace with Argonne Laboratory's research expertise, which touches all phases of energy production and delivery. “The collaboration will further the goal of Argonne and the U.S. Department of Energy to identify technologies that have the potential to improve grid reliability, efficiency and stability, and introduce them to the market where they can have the greatest benefit to consumers and the public,” Exelon said.
Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC) is a Fortune 100 energy company with the largest number of utility customers in the U.S. Exelon does business in 48 states, the District of Columbia and Canada and had 2015 revenue of $34.5 billion. Exelon’s six utilities deliver electricity and natural gas to approximately 10 million customers in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania through its Atlantic City Electric, BGE, ComEd, Delmarva Power, PECO and Pepco subsidiaries. Exelon is one of the largest competitive U.S. power generators, with more than 32,700 megawatts of nuclear, gas, wind, solar and hydroelectric generating capacity comprising one of the nation’s cleanest and lowest-cost power generation fleets. The company’s Constellation business unit provides energy products and services to approximately 2.5 million residential, public sector and business customers, including more than two-thirds of the Fortune 100.