Thousands of PECO customers still without power as dangerous heat wave intensifies

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Power is still out for thousands of PECO customers in the Philadelphia area after heavy winds during last week’s storm downed power lines. 

That means households are sweating through the dangerous heat without air conditioning or fans.

“It increases the risk of people getting sick from heat,” said Jennifer Trivedi, a professor at the University of Delaware’s Disaster Research Center. “They’re exposed to the heat, and they have less that they can do to alleviate that heat.”

Temperatures are forecast to top 100 degrees Monday and Tuesday. High humidity will make the heat even more dangerous. Nighttime lows are forecast to stay above 80 degrees, offering little relief for households without air conditioning.

As of midday Monday, over 11,000 PECO customers in the Philadelphia area were affected by outages, according to the utility’s website. Spokesperson Ben Armstrong said some of these outages were “proactive,” and were necessary for crews to safely restore power. Others resulted from damaged trees that fell days after Thursday’s storm, he said.

Monday’s outages were down from a peak of over 300,000 customers without power after the storm, PECO said in a news release. On Sunday, when temperatures reached the upper 80s in Philly, more than 20,000 customers had no power.

PECO is on track to restore service to the remaining customers by 11 p.m. Monday, Armstrong said.

The utility is directing people affected by outages to utilize cooling centers available in Philadelphia and Montgomery County. 

“With rising temperatures across the region, PECO continues to stay closely connected with local government agencies to share information on restoration progress and to ensure awareness of cooling centers that are in place across the region,” PECO wrote in a news release Sunday.

Line workers and tree crews from outside PECO’s service territory have come to help address the outages, PECO said.

Impact of climate change on heat waves

Climate change is driving longer and hotter heat waves. This means the likelihood that a heat wave overlaps with, or hits back-to-back with, another weather disaster is increasing as well, Trivedi said. This can strain household resources and the ability of local governments, utilities or health systems to respond, she said.

Weather-related outages, caused by factors such as wildfire, winter weather, extreme heat and hurricanes, have increased over the past two decades, according to an analysis by the research nonprofit Climate Central. Higher temperatures can strain the electric grid because demand for power to run air conditioners surges.

This week’s heat wave is expected to push electricity demand to the highest levels in over a decade. PJM Interconnection, the operator of the regional electric grid covering Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and several other states, released a “Maximum Generation Alert” urging power generators and transmitters to defer any scheduled maintenance to keep units online and producing power.

The grid operator has also initiated its demand response program, which means designated customers are compensated to cut their electricity usage.

Over the next five years, PECO plans to invest over $9 billion in system maintenance and upgrades to ensure it can meet increased demand, prevent power outages and fix outages faster, Armstrong said.