Commonwealth Edison caught a break from the weather Friday as cooler-than-expected temperatures doused demand for electricity. Friday afternoon, temperatures at O’Hare International Airport were in the low 80s, not the mid-90s as had been predicted, and almost 10 degrees cooler along the lake. Early Friday, ComEd had predicted that energy demand might soar over the 1995 record of 19,212 megawatts. By afternoon, it had lowered the prediction to 17,800 megawatts, demand the utility could meet. On Thursday, the company averted randomly cutting off power to customers by buying electricity from other utilities. Bad weather knocked out power to more than 100,000 ComEd customers early Friday. At 1:30 p.m., 36,500 customers still had no power, a ComEd spokesman said.
