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Power Restoration Efforts Near Completion in Ameren Illinois Service Area

COLLINSVILLE, Ill. (July 3, 2023) – Ameren Illinois understands that this has been a difficult few days for customers whose power was disrupted due to several consecutive days of severe weather which caused extensive damage to the electric infrastructure throughout the company's 43,700-square-mile territory.  

"We know this has been a challenging time for our customers and no one wants to be without power, said Lenny Singh, Chairman and President, Ameren Illinois. "We can't say thank you enough to our customers and our community partners for their patience and the tremendous support they have shown our team members who have worked tirelessly to restore service in the wake of these significant weather events."

Power restoration efforts in Ameren Illinois service territory are nearing completion, with approximately 10,000 customers remaining without service this evening. Over the course of three days, electric service to more than 225,000 customers was interrupted due to damages caused by intense storms that impacted the area.  Ameren Illinois crews have worked around the clock to restore power to approximately 215,000 customers.

"Our crews have performed tremendously, working as quickly as possible while exercising high standards of safety," Singh said. "As of Monday evening, we have restored nearly all of the outages caused by the initial derecho that impacted a wide section of the region on Thursday. We have some  work ahead tonight and tomorrow to restore the remaining customers who lost power during the second and third waves of severe weather. I am proud of the way our crews have shown up to take care of our customers and our communities."

Current Situation (9 P.M. on July 3)

  • More than 3,000 Ameren Illinois line workers, contractor and support personnel have been engaged in cleaning up remaining power outages from last week's severe thunderstorms that battered communities in downstate Illinois.
     
  • Several consecutive days of severe weather, including last Thursday's derecho with 100-plus mph winds, caused extensive damage to electric infrastructure in multiple counties throughout Ameren Illinois' downstate service territory.  
     
  • As of 9 p.m., July 3, approximately 10,000 customers are without power in the service territory. Power is expected to be restored by tomorrow evening for remaining customers in Mt. Vernon, Columbia, East St. Louis, Centralia, Granite City, Collinsville, Belleville and Millstadt.
     
  • Approximately 215,000 customer outages have been restored since the storms began on Thursday.
     
  • Approximately 1,300 poles (sub-transmission and distribution) have been damaged or destroyed.    
     
  • If a home or business has been damaged by severe storms, the customer may need to make specific repairs before Ameren can restore power. Learn more here: Storm Damage to Weatherheads on Vimeo