An Engineer's Journey of Electrifying our Fight Against Covid-19

Picture this: Chicago’s infamous skyline pitch-black. Before Covid-19, this was a rare sight for a city filled with thousands of illuminated windows painted on towering buildings. In a matter of days, the city’s beloved skyline turned dark as electricity fled into residential homes and hospitals. With people working from home, students attending virtual classes, and patients in hospitals overflowing, engineers around the world had little time to meet the drastic difference in electricity load patterns. Although power consumption in the nation dropped nearly 6% overall, it increased by 8% in residential homes and a shocking 600% in hospitals. It became vital for electric utility suppliers, like ComEd, to guarantee electricity and coordinate distribution networks despite the changes the pandemic brought about.

In fact, electricity is a critical factor in combatting the spread of Covid-19. Households and businesses with insufficient energy access often lack essential services like heating and water, which ensures the health and sanitation of residents and visitors. In more extreme cases, health facilities demand electricity for health services and medical equipment, and thermal requirements related to sterilization. Almost all diagnostic tests for Covid-19 infections require electricity. Furthermore, to treat diagnosed patients, ventilators and oxygen masks need reliable electricity as a power outage as mere minutes can risk death. As vaccine distribution begins, it is critical to store it at the appropriate temperature as an estimated 50 percent of freeze-dried vaccines and 35 percent of liquid vaccines are wasted each year due to electricity disruptions. Needless to say, we owe our engineers overdue appreciation for their role in this pandemic.

Manager of Capacity Planning, Marina Mondello tells the story of how she gave Chicago light in times of darkness. Mondello, an undeniable trailblazer, attended Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology only two years after women were allowed to attend. Soon after, she received a bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, not only as a first-generation student but as one of the only women in her classes. Having worked with ComEd for nearly twenty years, Mondello has achieved things she once thought were impossible. From managing a team of 56 engineers to being the first woman in seventeen years to be voted ComEd’s Engineer of the Year, Mondello has paved the path for future women interested in engineering.

Amid the pandemic, Mondello and her team had to understand and adapt to the changing electric grid load patterns. To hypothesize the change in load and billing of customers, Mondello’s team pulled aggregated hourly load data from the previous summer and evaluated its performance, which she forecasted the residential customer peak demand typically occurred in the evening and especially in the summertime exacerbated by Chicago’s stay-at-home order, to which she adjusted the capacity of the system to meet this demand. With ComEd’s 34,900 miles of overhead distribution lines and 29,700 miles of underground distribution lines across Illinois, Mondello’s team had an arduous task of meeting the new demands of electrical consumption. Although Mondello’s humble simplification may downplay her role last year, she and her team were responsible for the electricity Chicagoans needed to overcome this crisis.

However, Mondello’s journey did not come without struggles. Even with the multitude of uncertainties given the pandemic, she had to manage a team virtually, all while supporting every member with what they needed. She recalls the challenges of knowledge transfer and collaboration between teams, both key aspects of in-person work. Unsurprisingly, Mondello did what she did best: adapt and rise to the top.

She advised that “the relationships you build and teamwork will help so much,” and that became indisputably clear as she united her team by being both a manager and a friend. Mondello’s story is only one of many. In the past year, engineers were able to unite people around the world and electrify our battle against Covid-19.

On January 19th, Chicago’s skyline darkened to a standstill for a moment of silence, as a tribute to the 400,000 lives lost this past year. In moments of darkness like these, the city is reminded that we truly are brighter together, and the collective action of each and every one of us brings us closer to the light that is hope.

Annotated Bibliography:

An Exelon Company. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.comed.com/DoingBusinessWithUs/Pages/EnergySuppliers.aspx
ComEd’s Energy Choice Supplier section provides information on their electricity suppliers and how they provide energy to ComEd’s service areas.

Broto, V. C., & Kirshner, J. (2020, May 11). Energy access is needed to maintain health during pandemics. Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-020-0625-6
This article explains the role energy plays in pandemics and offers ways energy accessibility ensures the health of people in homes and hospitals.

Capacity Planning Engineer - Project People. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.projectpeople.com/jobs/capacity-planning-engineer#:~:text=The Capacity Planning Engineer will,or upgraded sites and circuits.
This website provides a job description of what capacity planning engineers are responsible for and their daily tasks.

Conca, J. (2020, October 28). How Covid-19 Has Changed The Way Americans Use Energy. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2020/10/28/the-coronavirus-uneven-effects-on- energy-use-in-america/
Forbe’s article reviews a study done to find the effects that lockdowns around the world had on energy consumption.

Fetter, R., Fuller, A., Porcaro, J., & Sinai, C. (2020, June 05). You can't fight pandemics without power- electric power. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/blog/future-development/2020/06/05/you- cant-fight-pandemics-without-power-electric-power/
This article pinpoints the necessity of reliable electricity to power healthcare facilities and prevent the spread Covid-19, using statistics from studies around the world.