ComEd Restores Service to 99 Percent of Customers Affected by High Wind-Generated Outages

CHICAGO, Oct. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- ComEd has restored service to nearly 320,000 customers affected by the two-day series of damaging winds and severe storms that began on Tuesday morning. ComEd crews will have the remaining customers back to service by late Thursday night.

In the aftermath of one of the Midwest's most powerful storms in 70 years, ComEd crews replaced more than 13 miles of electrical lines and 72 distribution transformers. The wind wreaked damage on more than 274 poles, which, if stacked end to end would be eight times the height of the Willis Tower. In Sandwich alone a multi-day effort is under way to replace 61 transmission poles that were snapped like twigs in one of the areas hardest hit by powerful winds that between 30 and 60 mph.

ComEd leveraged more than 1,400 operations personnel and 100 additional crews and staff to respond to the outages. Up to 250 Call Center employees were on hand at a time to manage the 190,000 customer calls during the storm, nearly double the typical call volume. The company's efforts to mobilize staff and resources in advance of the severe weather onslaught also proved to be a vital step as crews restored power to more than 96 percent of the affected customers within the first 24 hours

"We appreciate the patience of our customers who experienced outages during this highly destructive wind storm," said Anne Pramaggiore, ComEd President and COO. "Everyone from our field crews to our customer service representatives and our storm response leadership did an exemplary job, working around the clock to assist and restore customers across the service territory quickly and safely."

Customers remaining without service should report their outage to 800-EDISON-1. Spanish-speaking customers can call 1-800-95-LUCES (1-800-955-8237).

Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) is a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC), one of the nation's largest electric utilities with approximately 5.4 million customers. ComEd provides service to approximately 3.8 million customers across northern Illinois, or 70 percent of the state's population.

SOURCE ComEd