Power outage statistics measure several different things: how often customers lose service, how long interruptions last, how severe major events become, and how households experience outages lasting more than a day. In the United States, the latest national distribution figures show 611.3 minutes of non-momentary interruption per customer in 2024 when major events were included, compared with 342.0 minutes in 2023. Those figures are averages, not a prediction for any individual address.
Contents
- How power outages are measured
- National outage duration and frequency
- How states compared in 2024
- What changed between 2023 and 2024
- Restoration time and reporting coverage
- Long outages and household backup exposure
- Major events and bulk-grid reliability
How power outages are measured
The most useful national distribution measures are expressed per customer or per interruption. Minutes per customer-year describe the total interruption duration averaged across customers. Interruptions per customer-year describe frequency. Average minutes per interruption describe the typical restoration interval among recorded interruptions. These measures are related, but they answer different questions.
The Energy Information Administration’s Electric Power Annual, Table 11.3 reports reliability metrics using any method for U.S. distribution systems by state. The table’s 2024 and 2023 figures include major events unless stated otherwise. Major-event definitions vary by utility, so comparisons should be treated as broad indicators rather than perfectly standardized experiments. EIA reporting also has estimated customer coverage in some jurisdictions.
This distinction matters because a year with one very large storm can have a much higher minutes-per-customer result even if ordinary service interruptions are comparatively stable. Conversely, a system can record more interruptions without producing the highest annual outage minutes if restoration is fast.
The EIA’s 2022 analysis, U.S. electricity customers averaged five and one-half hours of power interruptions in 2022, provides a longer context. U.S. electricity customers averaged approximately 5.5 hours of interruption in 2022, almost two hours less than in 2021. Excluding major events, average annual U.S. interruption duration remained around two hours each year from 2013 through 2022. These are observed historical measures, and the major-event treatment is important when comparing them with other series.
National outage duration and frequency
The 2024 national distribution results were:
| Measure | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Interruption duration per customer | 342.0 minutes | 611.3 minutes |
| Interruptions per customer | 1.333 | 1.521 |
| Average restoration interval | 256.6 minutes | 401.9 minutes |
All three measures increased from 2023 to 2024 when major events were included, according to EIA Table 11.3. The national 2024 average therefore reflects both more interruptions per customer and a longer average interval per interruption. It should not be read as saying that every customer lost power for 611.3 minutes at the same times or in the same number of incidents.
The 2023 baseline is useful because it shows how much the annual result can move. In 2023, U.S. distribution customers experienced 1.333 non-momentary interruptions per customer and 342.0 minutes per customer. The average restoration interval was 256.6 minutes. In 2024, the corresponding values were 1.521 interruptions, 611.3 minutes, and 401.9 minutes.
Weather-related disruption is part of this context. The EIA reported 18 U.S. weather-related disasters exceeding $1 billion in damage per event in 2022. Hurricane Ian left more than 2.6 million Florida customers without power in September 2022, with some outages lasting more than two weeks. Those event measures describe affected customers and duration, while annual reliability metrics summarize customer experience across a reporting year.
How states compared in 2024
State averages show why a national number can conceal large differences. Maine recorded 1,748.6 minutes of interruption per customer in 2024, the highest value among the states listed here, along with 3.636 interruptions per customer. New Hampshire recorded 922.7 minutes and 2.021 interruptions per customer. Texas recorded 1,270.6 minutes and 2.114 interruptions per customer.
Other reported state results were lower in duration but still varied in frequency. Washington recorded 623.5 minutes and 1.752 interruptions per customer. Michigan recorded 470.4 minutes and 1.356 interruptions per customer. Nebraska recorded 641.7 minutes and 1.232 interruptions per customer.
| State | Minutes per customer, 2024 | Interruptions per customer, 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Maine | 1,748.6 | 3.636 |
| Texas | 1,270.6 | 2.114 |
| New Hampshire | 922.7 | 2.021 |
| Nebraska | 641.7 | 1.232 |
| Washington | 623.5 | 1.752 |
| Michigan | 470.4 | 1.356 |
These figures are observed EIA Form EIA-861, any-method utility reporting. They include major events, and the source notes that major-event definitions vary by utility. A state with a high annual duration is not necessarily experiencing the same outage pattern as another state with a similar total: one may have more incidents, while another may have fewer but longer interruptions.
What changed between 2023 and 2024
The state comparisons also show year-to-year movement. Maine recorded 1,863.0 minutes per customer and 3.314 interruptions per customer in 2023, then 1,748.6 minutes and 3.636 interruptions in 2024. Its duration decreased while its interruption frequency increased.
New Hampshire moved from 645.8 minutes and 1.753 interruptions per customer in 2023 to 922.7 minutes and 2.021 interruptions in 2024. Texas moved from 496.2 minutes and 1.763 interruptions to 1,270.6 minutes and 2.114 interruptions. Washington moved from 151.7 minutes and 1.025 interruptions to 623.5 minutes and 1.752 interruptions.
Michigan shows a different pattern: it moved from 1,093.6 minutes and 1.512 interruptions per customer in 2023 to 470.4 minutes and 1.356 interruptions in 2024. Because these values include major events, a single severe episode can materially affect a state’s annual result. The data supports comparison of reported annual outcomes, but it does not identify the cause of each state’s change.
Restoration time and reporting coverage
Average interruption duration can look very different when major events are included or excluded. In 2024, Maine’s average interruption lasted 480.9 minutes including major events and 128.1 minutes excluding them. Texas recorded 600.9 minutes including major events and 106.2 minutes excluding them. Washington recorded 355.9 minutes including major events and 146.0 minutes excluding them.
The District of Columbia recorded 120.2 minutes per interruption including major events and 107.2 minutes excluding major events. This narrower difference contrasts with the larger gaps reported for Maine, Texas, and Washington. The measure is CAIDI, or average interruption duration, and the EIA labels these as any-method utility reports when major events are included.
Coverage is another limitation to keep in view. The District of Columbia’s reported reliability metrics covered 98.9% of customers in both 2024 and 2023. Montana’s reported reliability metrics covered 74.7% of customers in 2024. The Montana value is an EIA estimate of meters represented, while the District of Columbia figure is a meter-based coverage estimate. Two reported averages can therefore differ not only because of outage experience, but also because of the customer population represented.
Long outages and household backup exposure
Distribution averages do not show how many homes endured an outage longer than a day. The EIA’s RECS Table HC2.9, Structural and geographic characteristics of U.S. homes, by home size, 2020, estimates that 22.72 million U.S. primary occupied homes experienced a power outage lasting more than 24 hours in 2020.
These are 2020 survey estimates in millions of primary occupied homes, not annual incidence rates. The survey excludes vacant, seasonal, and second homes, military housing, and group quarters, and the outage responses are respondent-reported.
By home size, the estimated number of homes experiencing an outage longer than 24 hours was 5.06 million for homes under 1,000 square feet; 4.84 million for homes from 1,000 to 1,499 square feet; 4.17 million for homes from 1,500 to 1,999 square feet; 2.98 million for homes from 2,000 to 2,499 square feet; 2.05 million for homes from 2,500 to 2,999 square feet; and 3.61 million for homes of at least 3,000 square feet.
The same 2020 RECS table estimated that 17.66 million U.S. primary occupied homes had a backup generator. Homes under 1,000 square feet accounted for 2.51 million homes with a backup generator, while homes of at least 3,000 square feet accounted for 4.16 million. These figures describe generator ownership, not portable-power-station ownership, and they do not measure how much electricity a backup system can supply or for how long.
Major events and bulk-grid reliability
Selected reportable events illustrate the scale of severe outages. EIA’s Electric Power Monthly, Table B.2 lists a January 2023 Sacramento Municipal Utility District event lasting 23 hours and affecting 185,434 customers. A Southern Company severe-weather event across Alabama and Georgia lasted 13 hours and affected 162,000 customers from January 12–13, 2023.
In Harris County, Texas, a CenterPoint Energy event lasted 52 hours 55 minutes and affected 100,731 customers from January 24–26, 2023. An Oncor event across Texas counties lasted 152 hours 45 minutes and affected 360,000 customers from January 31–February 6, 2023. These are selected DOE-417/EIA major-disturbance reporting-threshold events, not a complete count of every outage.
Bulk-system indicators should be kept separate from distribution-customer metrics. NERC’s 2024 State of Reliability — Technical Assessment recorded 16 EEA-3 energy emergency declarations in 2023, ten fewer than in 2022, across the North American bulk power system. NERC reported zero GWh of firm load shed during EEA-3 declarations in 2023, versus 92.6 GWh in 2022.
For 2022, operator-initiated firm-load shedding totaled 56.5 hours: 21 hours during a June heatwave and 35.5 hours during Winter Storm Elliott. The conventional-generation annual WEFOR was 7.8% in 2023, the third-highest annual value since NERC began digital GADS collection in 2013. AC circuits above 200 kV had a 0.24% unavailability rate in 2023, while transmission transformers had a 0.25% unavailability rate.
EEA-3 declarations, WEFOR, transmission unavailability, and firm-load-shed measures are not distribution customer outage counts. They describe bulk-power-system conditions and should not be substituted for minutes or interruptions per distribution customer when assessing household outage exposure.