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At PECO trees not only play a vital role in our work to offer reliable electricity to our customers, but also in our ongoing commitment to protect and preserve our environment while playing a leading role in our region’s transition to a clean energy future to combat climate change.

Trees can help our customers reduce energy usage while improving air quality, reducing stormwater runoff, minimizing the urban heat island effect, shrinking our carbon footprint, and beautifying our communities.  As we celebrate Arbor Day on April 30, here are some important tree-related PECO programs that can be helpful to our customers:

Vegetation Management

Trees and other vegetation cause approximately one-third of all power outages for PECO customers. That’s why our commitment to reliability goes beyond maintaining the poles and lines themselves, also focusing the trees surrounding the power lines through our vegetation management program.

We invest millions of dollars each year in vegetation management, which includes pruning, tree removal, mowing and public education. Our preventive pruning helps keep trees and power lines a safe distance apart; areas where line clearance work is completed experience fewer outages and a significant improvement in electric reliability. We also established a program to identify and address areas that have experienced multiple power outages due to vegetation issues and work to implement corrective actions to reduce these types of outages in the future. Learn more about our Vegetation Management program—including how to report an issue—in our Vegetation Management Program Fact Sheet.

Tree Distribution and Community Education

Trees have energy-saving benefits; when planted properly, a single tree can save a homeowner up to 20% on energy costs. Through the Arbor Day Foundation’s Energy Saving Trees Program, we gave away more than 1,000 trees to PECO customers.  Learn more at the Arbor Day Foundation website.

We also work in Partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation’s “The Right Tree in the Right Place” program to help educate customers on where to plant trees to ensure that trees will not require major trimming in the future or impact reliability of our services.  We offer our customers extensive resources on where to plant trees on their property, and what kind of trees to plant to help avoid service-related issues. For more information, visit our website.

Through these partnerships and our commitment to vegetation management, PECO named to the Arbor Day Foundation’s 2021 Tree Line USA® in honor of our commitment to proper tree pruning, planting and care in our service area.

Green Region Grants

Through our PECO Green Region Open Space Program with Natural Lands, PECO helps to fund local open space projects throughout the Philadelphia region.  Just last month, PECO donated $150,000 to 19 municipalities to support projects including the expansion of a borough’s urban tree canopy and improving gardens, walking trails and local parks.

Partnering with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS)

We are working with PHS to improve the tree canopy across Greater Philadelphia. Since 1993, PHS has trained more than 5,500 volunteers who have organized their neighbors in planting 23,000+ trees in Philadelphia and surrounding municipalities, not only increasing tree cover but building social connections among neighbors. If you’re interested in planting trees in your community, becoming a PHS Tree Tender is a great start!

Threes for Trees

We’ve enlisted some help from high places with our tree distribution efforts, partnering with Philadelphia 76ers to present “Threes for Trees.” After every 3-point-shot converted by the 76ers at a home game, PECO donates one tree seedling to be planted in locations throughout the greater Philadelphia area. Another reason to root for the team!

Disclaimer: All images displayed in this content hub story are property of PECO. Permission is granted for these images to be reused on the condition that they are shared exactly as presented on the website, without any addition or modification. 


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