Outages began late Wednesday afternoon because of high winds and ice.
Neal Johnson, spokesman for Ameren Illinois Utiltities, said the company hopes to get that number down to zero by Friday evening, if the weather cooperates.
At about 9:30 p.m. Thursday, Ameren reported 326 customers still without power in Peoria County, 110 in Tazewell County and 288 in Woodford County.
Outages remained especially stubborn, however, in Stark County, where 1,255 customers remained without power at 9:30 p.m. At that time Marshall County still had 760 customers without power.
In Knox County, 411 customers will still without power, along with 344 in Henry County, 66 in McLean County and 76 in LaSalle County.
About 500 Ameren workers were on duty Thursday evening and expected to work through the night to accomplish that goal.
"We've got some massive efforts happening and we're dealing with a combination of high wind and ice on the wires, trees and poles," Johnson said, adding that customers need to, "hunker down and understand, we're working as quickly and as safely as we can to get everybody up and running again."
Johnson also stressed that anyone who sees a downed power line needs to stay away from the wires and call Ameren as soon as possible to make a report.
Three Ameren divisions service the Peoria area. Depending on the service area, the numbers to call are: Ameren CIPS, (888) 789-2477; AmerenCILCO, (888) 672-5252; and AmerenIP, (800) 755-5000.
Storm Reference: 20100121AIU
