Response is ongoing to restore all customers following severe storms with high winds
ComEd crews continue to work around the clock to restore service to customers impacted by a prolonged weather system that included severe thunderstorms and wind speeds up to 70 miles per hour and brought significant destruction to northern Illinois, particularly the northern suburbs of Chicago. Damage from the storm included downed trees and large branches, many of which landed on power lines. These will all be cleared in order to restore customers.
More than 96,000 customers — 87 percent of the 107,000 customers originally impacted — have been restored as of 10:30 this morning following Tuesday evening’s storm system. ComEd expects that remaining outages will be restored by the afternoon of Thursday, August 29.
“Safely restoring power to all our customers impacted by Tuesday evening’s storms remains our number one priority, and our dedicated crews are working around the clock to bring all affected customers back,” said Dave Perez, executive vice-president and COO of ComEd. “We recognize that losing power at any time can be frustrating, and we appreciate our customers’ patience as we continue to assess damage throughout the region and restore power.”
More than 400 field crews with over 1,500 personnel have been deployed today to support ongoing restoration efforts. An additional 380 field personnel will be joining ComEd’s restoration efforts later today. As crews worked overnight and throughout the day, they will continue to prioritize critical facilities such as hospitals, senior centers, law enforcement and fire departments, and then move to restoring outages affecting the greatest number of customers. Given the extent of damage stemming from the storm, ComEd will remain in close coordination with community leaders and local agencies to provide updates and for safe outage restoration.
Climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of severe weather. To strengthen its infrastructure, ComEd has been investing in power grid upgrades. These improvements have helped to reinforce systemwide reliability to 70 percent, avoiding more than 21.7 million customer outages and saving more than $3.3 billion in outage-related costs.
Our number one priority is to keep customers safe following severe weather. Please follow these tips:
- If you encounter a downed power line, immediately call ComEd at 1-800-EDISON-1 (1-800-334-7661).
- Spanish-speaking customers should call 1-800-95-LUCES (1-800-955-8237).
- Never approach a downed power line. Always assume a power line is energized and extremely dangerous.
Customers can sign up for Outage Alerts at ComEd.com/Alerts or text OUT to 26633 to report an outage and receive information about when their power is expected to be restored.
ComEd also offers a mobile app for iPhone® and Android® smartphones that gives customers the ability to report power outages and manage their accounts. In addition, customers can report outages through ComEd’s Facebook and Twitter pages.
About ComEd
ComEd is a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corporation (NASDAQ: EXC), a Fortune 200 energy company with approximately 10 million electricity and natural gas customers – the largest number of customers in the U.S. ComEd powers the lives of more than 4 million customers across northern Illinois, or 70 percent of the state's population. For more information visit ComEd.com, and connect with the company on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and YouTube.
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