The average U.S. electricity customer experienced over eight hours of power outages in 2020, according to data recently released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, reaching the highest level since the agency started tracking electricity reliability data in 2013.
EIA collects data from electric utilities including the frequency and duration of outages and the number of customers affected. Excluding "major events" like snowstorms, wildfires, and hurricanes, from 2013 to 2020 customers consistently experienced about two hours per year of interruptions. Including major events, the average annual duration of outages has ranged from just over 3 hours in 2016 to over 8 hours last year. Prior to 2020, the previous record was set in 2017, at just below 8 hours.
EIA cites various causes of power interruptions, including weather, vegetation patterns, and utility practices. The agency also provides utility-specific data, allowing analysis of which states and even which companies have the worst reliability:
Maine, historically a state with long electricity interruptions during the winter, is a heavily forested state where power interruptions resulting from falling tree branches are common. In 2020, Maine saw the highest average number of power interruptions.
In 2020, Maine had the greatest average number of power interruptions per customer (at almost 4 outages per year), and had the sixth-longest total duration of outages (at almost 30 hours). In previous years, Maine has similarly ranked relatively high on the lists of states sorted by greatest duration and frequency of outages.
