{"id":95320,"date":"2026-01-24T05:11:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T05:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/95320\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T05:11:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T05:11:06","slug":"peco-crews-prepare-for-possible-outages-as-storm-approaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/95320\/","title":{"rendered":"PECO crews prepare for possible outages as storm approaches"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — As a winter storm moves into the region, the likelihood of widespread power outages will depend more on the weight and type of precipitation than on snowfall totals.<\/p>\n

Heavy, wet snow or a coating of ice could accumulate on power lines and cause them to snap, while lighter, powdery snow is less likely to create problems.<\/p>\n

More than 3,000 PECO employees, along with the utility’s contractors, are on standby this weekend. The company spent the week increasing staffing and preparing vehicles to respond in poor conditions, should outages occur.<\/p>\n

“It’s going to be very cold next week, so our priority will be making sure that we are working as quickly as possible to restore service to our customers,” said Candice Womer of PECO. “You know, they’re relying on us for to heat their homes. So that is a big concern.”<\/p>\n

READ MORE | PECO offers 7 winter storm tips<\/a><\/p>\n

Womer said that while PECO has previously relied on assistance from utilities in other states, this storm is going to impact a wide area of the country, so those backup crews won’t be as available.<\/p>\n

“So mutual assistance is something that we do rely on when we can; however, we have enough employees and contractors in place for this storm that we don’t have any concerns going forward for that,” she said.<\/p>\n

The looming threat of outages has also kept generator repair companies busy. Steven Menken of Menken Generators said customers have been calling with concerns.<\/p>\n

“Lots of, ‘My generator doesn’t work. I see a red light on the Generac.’ Our customers just want us to check their generator to make sure it’s in good order before the storm,” Menken said.<\/p>\n

While on a service call on the Main Line, Menken said he expects even more last-minute requests.<\/p>\n

“And then tracking down material that they need is fun because there’s a shortage right now. There’s a bum rush on all the manufacturers and parts because it’s hitting large swaths of the country,” he said.<\/p>\n

His crew will be available on Sunday, he says.<\/p>\n

PECO is urging customers to report outages<\/a> when they occur.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — As a winter storm moves into the region, the likelihood of widespread power outages will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[46891,69,71,70,21194],"class_list":["post-95320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-46891","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-timely"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}