ComEd crews have restored electric service to more than 90,000 customers affected by this past weekend's dangerously high winds.
Customers across the area in which ComEd serves were impacted over the weekend after high winds moved into northern Illinois overnight Saturday, bringing freezing rain and snow in parts of the region. This was followed by high winds throughout Sunday that included wind gusts exceeding 60 miles per hour through Sunday night.
ComEd thanks customers for their patience and cooperation, and thanks crews for their dedication to ensuring power was restored as quickly and safely as possible. More than 400 ComEd crews, as well as contractors, worked around the clock to safely and efficiently restore power to 90,000 impacted customers across the service territory.
ComEd worked on an emergency basis to restore service to customers who were experiencing power outages. Restorations, on an average, were taking eight hours or less.
“Extreme winds can prevent crews from working safely in trucks that reach high up to the overhead powerlines, so climbing is sometimes the only alternative and that takes time," said Terence R. Donnelly, president and chief operating officer, ComEd, on Feb. 24.
The restoration effort involved more than 700 ComEd and contractor crew members, including overhead linemen, front line supervisors and vegetation management specialists, who remove downed trees and branches so linemen can repair downed lines. ComEd also dispatched wire watchers who are trained to look for electrical hazards associated with downed wires and monitor them to protect the public until the restoration begins.
ComEd has introduced a mobile app for iPhone and Android smart phones that gives customers the ability to report power outages and manage their accounts.
The utility also has an interactive outage map on its website that allows customers to find information on the location and size of outages and get estimated power restoration times.
