A few days before Christmas, ComEd began preparing for a winter storm. The utility assembled a response team of more than 1,800 ComEd, contractor and mutual assistance workers to respond to any outages resulting from the weather, including more than 300 energy company workers from other parts of the country. At that time, the forecasts projected 4 inches to 6 inches of snow, wind gusts in excess of 50 miles per hour and below zero temperatures across northern Illinois from Dec. 22 to 23, 2022.
"For any customers impacted by this storm, we will be focused on restoring power as quickly and safely as possible," said Gil Quiniones, CEO of ComEd. "We've made investments in our electric system to make it more resilient to the effects of extreme weather. This technology, and the dedicated men and women of ComEd, will work to minimize the impact for our customers."
ComEd positioned storm response workers and equipment around the ComEd territory to most quickly restore power for affected customers. They took extra safety precautions, including regular breaks inside their vehicles, as they faced negative windchill temperatures. In addition, ComEd had warming buses on standby, if necessary, for vulnerable customers while the power was being restored.
As of Dec. 23, 2022, line crews restored power to more than 18,000 customers affected by the winter storm, or 96% of outages across ComEd's service territory. At that time, more than 500 crews continued working around the clock to restore services as quickly and safely as possible.
