ComEd, a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corp., picked General Electric (GE) to deliver about 4 million smart meters from 2013 to 2021 in a deal worth more than $200 million.

By deploying advanced meters across its Illinois service territory, along with other components of its grid modernization initiative, ComEd expects to transform the delivery of electricity to homes and businesses and give consumers greater control over their energy consumption and costs.

The smart meters will allow ComEd’s customers to better manage their energy usage and help ComEd more quickly detect and restore power outages.

Under Illinois’ 2011 Smart Grid Law, ComEd committed to invest more than $2.6 billion over 10 years to modernize its electric grid in Northern Illinois—more than $1.3 billion of which is earmarked to build a smart grid network and install smart meters in 4 million homes and businesses.

GE’s meters will help to enable effective two-way communication between ComEd and its customers. For example, ComEd’s smart meters will provide customers with hourly data on their energy usage. Smart meters also will alert ComEd to power outages automatically — without requiring customers to contact the utility — and help pinpoint the problem so ComEd can restore power faster.

GE will assemble the meters in Chicago and expects to create about 50 jobs as the project ramps up.