PECO: No Blackouts, But Power Cut to "Volunteer" Customers

As temperatures soar into triple digits, PECO customers are on pace to break all-time power consumption record for second straight day.

PECO is shutting off power to selected institutional customers this afternoon as it races to cope with the highest customer demand it has ever experienced. PECO spokesperson Ben Armstrong said this afternoon that the company expected to set a new record for power usage today, just one day after breaking a record that had previously stood for almost five years. PECO customers used 8,943 megawatts of power yesterday, eclipsing the previous record of 8,932 megawatts set Aug. 3, 2006. "We already know customers will be setting [another] new record today, but we won't have that number until tomorrow," Armstrong said. Armstrong said that PJM Interconnection, the Lower Providence-based operator of the regional electrical grid, has called for "…

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[UPDATED] PECO reporting 100,000 in Philadelphia region without power

The outages began in the early morning hours and crews are working non-stop to restore power.

An ice storm that moved through the area Wednesday morning has caused numerous power outages, with PECO reporting more than 100,000 of its customers without power as of 11:00am. About 22,000 of those customers are in Montgomery County, and an additional 20,000 in Chester County. "We believe that the outages we're seeing now are due to the effects of ice accumulation on power lines and on trees, branches and limbs," Liz Williamson, PECO spokeswoman, said earlier Wednesday morning. PECO has deployed all available crews, including additional crews brought in yesterday, and is working in elongated shifts to restore power, according to Williamson. Karen Muldoon Geus, director of communications for PECO, told Patch that the company has seen its …