Each holiday season, the 15th District police station displays a Christmas tree outside of its headquarters at 5701 W. Madison St.
This year, the tree will spread more than holiday cheer – it will also ensure reliable power to ComEd customers living nearby. When a city forester noticed several spruce trees planted on ComEd’s Fisk Generating Station property located a few miles from the police station, he asked ComEd if the energy company would donate one.
One of the spruces was growing too close to power lines, and eventually its branches would make contact and potentially cause electric service interruptions in the neighborhood. Since vegetation management was necessary, it made sense to donate the tree back to the community, ComEd decided.
Trees and other vegetation cause about 13 percent of all electric service interruptions. Preventive pruning around power lines is vital to providing reliable electric service. ComEd’s vegetation-management program helps ensure the proper maintenance of trees – and planting of new trees – along distribution and transmission rights of way.
For tips on how you can help prevent tree-related outages and keep holiday lights in your neighborhood glowing all season long, click here.