This week marks National Infrastructure Week, a consolidated effort and week of events led by non-profit United For Infrastructure, that highlights the state of our nation’s infrastructure and the projects, policies, and ideas critical to ensuring every American family, worker, business and community is competitive, prosperous, and safe.
Americans deserve infrastructure that keeps them safe, creates jobs, eliminates barriers to equality and opportunity, and fuels a strong and vibrant economy. At PECO, we’re doing everything that we can to ensure our infrastructure is resilient, modern and equitable for all of our customers across the Greater Philadelphia region, while also creating new jobs and removing barriers to entry.
As part of our Reliability & Resiliency Plan, PECO has committed to investing $1.36 billion over a five-year period in reliability-focused infrastructure improvements throughout our service territory. These strategic investments will help to prevent customer outages, modernize the electric grid, and reduce the impact of extreme weather on electric infrastructure. This work will also support the adoption of clean energy resources, like solar and electric vehicles.
This plan is part of the company’s overall system investment to keep the lights on and natural gas flowing for customers. During the next five years, we will be investing approximately $7.8 billion across our electric and natural gas systems to inspect equipment, complete targeted system enhancements and corrective maintenance, invest in new equipment, and perform vegetation management.
Our investment in the region’s infrastructure goes hand-in-hand with an increased number of jobs available in our community. At PECO, our dedicated Workforce Development team’s objective is to enhance the employability of those who reside in the communities that our company serves, with an emphasis on the underserved, by creating internal and external job opportunities. People are the success of our business and the driving force behind the work that we do. It is our dedication to improving the region’s infrastructure that allows us to create jobs, ultimately powering and transforming our communities that need us the most.
One important initiative that our team tackles is hosting PECO Infrastructure Academies. PECO Infrastructure Academies offer participants the opportunity to experience a glimpse into the essential work that goes into keeping the lights on and natural gas flowing across southeastern Pennsylvania. This is an important way that our company provides training and insights on entry-level careers available at PECO. Job seekers that participate in the academies experience sessions that include company overviews, mock interviews, and assessment demos for many apprentice roles.
To date, PECO has hosted four Infrastructure Academies in the Greater Philadelphia region, leading to 27 hires. New this year, PECO hosted our first-ever Jr. Infrastructure Academy, where local junior and high school students participated in hands-on learning activities, mock interviews, and live demonstrations on how to safely work in the energy field in addition to learning about PECO’s hiring process and the roles and responsibilities of key industry positions.
Investing in our region’s infrastructure and workforce is central to keeping the lights on and gas flowing for PECO’s over 1.7 million customers across southeastern Pennsylvania. To learn more about National Infrastructure Week, please visit https://unitedforinfrastructure.org/.