Power outages are a recurring household risk, but their scale differs sharply by location, event definition, housing condition and access to backup equipment. The statistics below combine 2024 U.S. utility reliability metrics, household surveys from 2015–2024, and federal resilience infrastructure estimates.
Key Power Outage Preparedness Statistics
The most broadly useful figures are:
- In 2024, U.S. customers experienced 611.3 minutes of interruption per customer, including major events.
- In 2024, U.S. customers experienced 1.521 interruptions per customer, including major events.
- In 2024, the average U.S. interruption lasted 401.9 minutes, including major events.
- In 2024, U.S. customers averaged 126.0 minutes without power, excluding major events.
- In 2024, South Carolina customers recorded 3,136.5 minutes of outage time, including major events.
- In 2024, Florida customers recorded 1,321.5 minutes of outage time, including major events.
- In 2024, Maine customers experienced 3.636 interruptions per customer, including major events.
- In 2024, about 19% of U.S. households reported owning a generator.
- In 2017, 22.4% of U.S. households earning at least $100,000 owned a generator.
- In 2017, 14.1% of U.S. households earning under $30,000 owned a generator.
- In 2024, 59% of surveyed U.S. households said they could live more than three days without power in cold temperatures.
- In 2024, 63% of surveyed U.S. households said they could live more than three days without power in warm temperatures.
- In 2024, 40% of surveyed U.S. households said they could live more than one week without power in cold temperatures.
- In 2024, 26% of surveyed U.S. households said they could live more than two weeks without power in warm temperatures.
- In 2024, 15% of surveyed U.S. households said they could live more than one month without power in cold temperatures.
- In 2019, 8.8% of U.S. housing units lacked any air conditioning.
- In 2015, 19.3% of U.S. households reported poor or no insulation.
- When DOE reported the figure, more than 2 million distributed solar generators were connected to the U.S. distribution system.
Contents
- Key Power Outage Preparedness Statistics
- How often U.S. customers lose electricity
- Power outage duration and frequency by state
- Generator ownership and household preparedness
- How long households expect to remain without power
- Home conditions that shape outage preparedness
- Solar, storage and community resilience
How Often U.S. Customers Lose Electricity
The Energy Information Administration reports three related reliability measures. SAIDI is interruption minutes per customer per year, SAIFI is interruptions per customer per year, and CAIDI is average minutes per interruption; the following 2024 figures use utility reporting and include major events unless noted.
| Measure | All events | Without major events |
|---|---|---|
| SAIDI | 611.3 minutes/customer | 126.0 minutes/customer |
| SAIFI | 1.521 interruptions/customer | 1.043 interruptions/customer |
| CAIDI | 401.9 minutes/interruption | 120.8 minutes/interruption |
Including major events, the national average was 611.3 minutes per customer and 1.521 interruptions per customer in 2024. The average interruption lasted 401.9 minutes, but that figure is an average across reported interruptions rather than a typical household experience.
When major events were excluded, the national values fell to 126.0 minutes per customer, 1.043 interruptions per customer and 120.8 minutes per interruption. EIA notes that utilities use any reporting method, and major-event definitions are utility-related; the two columns should therefore be read as different measurement scopes, not as a simple forecast of a household’s next outage.
Power Outage Duration and Frequency by State
State averages show why preparedness needs local context. All figures below are 2024 EIA reliability metrics including major events.
| State | SAIDI: minutes/customer | SAIFI: interruptions/customer | CAIDI: minutes/interruption |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Carolina | 3,136.5 | 2.365 | 1,326.3 |
| Florida | 1,321.5 | 1.770 | 746.6 |
| Maine | 1,748.6 | 3.636 | 480.9 |
| Michigan | 470.4 | 1.356 | Not supplied |
| Hawaii | 320.6 | 2.616 | 122.6 |
South Carolina recorded the highest supplied annual outage duration in this comparison, at 3,136.5 minutes per customer, while its average interruption lasted 1,326.3 minutes. Florida recorded 1,321.5 minutes per customer and a 746.6-minute average interruption.
Maine had the highest supplied interruption frequency, with 3.636 interruptions per customer, and 1,748.6 outage minutes per customer. Hawaii recorded 320.6 minutes per customer but 2.616 interruptions, illustrating that frequency and duration measure different aspects of reliability.
The state figures are utility-reported averages, not guarantees for every customer. Customer-reporting percentages in the EIA table can exceed 100% because they reflect reported customer-coverage conventions.
Generator Ownership and Household Preparedness
The 2017 American Housing Survey, summarized by Pew Research Center, found that about 19% of U.S. households reported owning a generator. The survey question covered single-family homes and small apartment buildings, and “generator” is broader than a portable power station.
Source: How well are Americans prepared for extreme weather events, other disasters?.
Ownership varied by reported household income and geography:
- In 2017, generator ownership was 22.4% among U.S. households earning $100,000 or more.
- In 2017, generator ownership was 14.1% among U.S. households earning less than $30,000.
- In 2017, 24.2% of surveyed New England housing units had a generator.
- In 2017, 14.2% of surveyed Mountain-region housing units had a generator.
- In 2017, 28.8% of surveyed Richmond, Virginia, housing units had a generator.
- In 2017, 26.6% of surveyed Miami–Fort Lauderdale housing units had a generator.
- In 2017, 6.3% of surveyed San Francisco housing units had a generator.
- In 2017, 7.5% of surveyed San Jose housing units had a generator.
These figures describe a 2017 survey population and should not be treated as a current national adoption rate. They also measure generator ownership, not battery capacity, fuel availability, transfer-switch installation or the ability to run specific appliances.
How Long Households Expect to Remain Without Power
FEMA’s 2024 National Household Survey on Disaster Preparedness measured self-reported expectations rather than observed outage survival. Its results distinguish cold and warm temperatures, which matter because household needs differ across conditions.
| Self-reported duration | Cold temperatures | Warm temperatures |
|---|---|---|
| More than 3 days | 59% | 63% |
| More than 1 week | 40% | 43% |
| More than 2 weeks | 24% | 26% |
| More than 1 month | 15% | 16% |
| More than 3 months | 9% | 11% |
Source: 2024 National Household Survey on Disaster Preparedness.
The largest supplied threshold difference appears at three days: 59% of surveyed households said they could live beyond that point in cold temperatures, compared with 63% in warm temperatures. At the one-week threshold, the corresponding figures were 40% and 43%.
At longer durations, 24% reported more than two weeks in cold temperatures and 26% in warm temperatures; 15% and 16%, respectively, reported more than one month. Only 9% in cold temperatures and 11% in warm temperatures reported more than three months.
These are household expectations, not observed outcomes during a specific outage. They do not establish how many people had fuel, batteries, food, medical-device support or a safe alternative location available when power actually failed.
Home Conditions That Shape Outage Preparedness
Housing characteristics can affect how quickly an outage becomes uncomfortable or unsafe, but the following measures are context rather than direct backup-power adoption. Pew’s summary of American Housing Survey and Residential Energy Consumption Survey data reports conditions from 2015 and air-conditioning measures from 2019.
- In 2019, 92.2% of U.S. households earning $100,000 or more had some form of air conditioning.
- In 2019, 88.9% of U.S. households earning less than $30,000 had some form of air conditioning.
- In 2019, 55.7% of Seattle housing units lacked air conditioning.
- In 2019, 52.7% of San Francisco housing units lacked air conditioning.
- In 2019, 21.4% of Portland, Oregon, housing units lacked air conditioning.
Source: How well are Americans prepared for extreme weather events, other disasters?.
For insulation and drafts, 19.3% of U.S. households said their home had poor or no insulation in 2015, while 11.7% said it was drafty most or all of the winter. The Pacific region reported 25.1% poor or no insulation and 12.3% winter draftiness.
Income differences were also reported in 2015. Among households earning under $20,000, 27.1% reported poor or no insulation and 20.1% reported winter draftiness; among households earning $140,000 or more, the corresponding figures were 8.9% and 6.2%.
Solar, Storage and Community Resilience
The Department of Energy describes distributed solar and storage as resilience-related infrastructure, but its figures do not measure portable power-station ownership or a national household preparedness rate.
Source: Solar and Resilience Basics.
When DOE reported the figure, more than 2 million distributed solar generators were connected to the U.S. distribution system. DOE said those systems represented about 40% of total U.S. photovoltaic capacity at that time.
Distributed generation is not synonymous with solar-plus-storage or backup capability. A grid-connected solar system may not continue supplying a home during an outage unless the installation includes the equipment and operating configuration needed for islanded backup.
DOE also reported that its SunSmart program equipped more than 100 schools with backup solar and storage systems. That is a program example, not a national adoption rate, but it demonstrates a resilience application extending beyond individual household equipment.
Taken together, the data separate several questions that are often blended: how frequently utilities report interruptions, how long those interruptions last, whether households own a generator, how long residents believe they can cope, and whether community facilities have resilient power. Each measure has a different population, date and definition.