Report Blames ComEd for Summer Outages

A report from the Illinois attorney general's office holds ComEd's equipment neglect and the utility's failure to trim trees as the culprits for last summer's prolonged power outages, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The report, filed last Thursday, said ComEd's infrastructure was outdated and carrying loads beyond designed capacity, the Tribune reports. The article adds that ComEd "has maintained that many storm-related outages cannot be prevented because they are caused by nature."

According to the Tribune, ComEd could be required to pay claims to people if the Illinois Commerce Commission agrees with the attorney general's report.

Local and state legislators when they sought to uncover why the power outages communities faced last summer had been so severe.

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“We need stronger performance metrics to hold ComEd accountable,”  said last August.

and also  for the utility's response to last summer's outages, specifically those that occurred when it wasn't raining. Rotering in a letter to the editor last September.

"We each are paying our bills every month in exchange for reliable power," Rotering wrote. "We need assurances from ComEd and our State regulators that they will hold up their ends of the deal."

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