One year after the high winds and snow storms from the blizzards of 2011 pummeled into Commonwealth Edison’s (ComEd) power lines, the company has announced a number of steps it will be taking to enhance its system after facing harsh criticism for the amount of customers who lost power, along with the lengthy time it took for the power to be restored.

“In the last 12 months, we’ve seen some of the most challenging and severe weather in ComEd’s history, and we made a commitment to all our customers that we would enhance our ability to respond to these extreme events,” said Anne Pramaggiore, president and COO of ComEd.

The company revealed its state-of-the-art Mobile Command Center designed to better deal with the aftermath of severe storms. The command center is housed inside a trailer that will be towed into hard-hit areas following a storm and will give ComEd a command post in that area. The command post will allow ComEd officials to better coordinate with its workers, local authorities, and customers throughout its coverage areas.

“It improves our communications (and provides a) better line of sight,” said Mike McMahan, vice president of ComEd’s smart grid technology. McMahan said the company has decided to make other improvements integrating new technology platforms.

The company plans to use text-messaging services to make customers aware of updated outage information, as well as, create an app that would show live real-time updates. McMahan said this is so ComEd’s customers are constantly kept in the loop and to keep the information consistent.

McMahan said the company has also increased its customer service lines and emergency staffs to make sure that they are available during the snowy season to keep on top of emergency situations. “We’re working very hard to get what the customers want. We want better communication, we want fewer outages and better restoration times,” said McMahan.

ComEd said the iPhone (News - Alert) application connecting customers with outage information should be available this summer. In the meantime, the Mobile Command Center, which cost more than $1 million to build, has seven flat-screen monitors and can seat 30 people. The command center is ready to go and ComEd said they would use the command center during the next major storm.