Even in well-instrumented grids, a minority of customers can still sit in the dark for long stretches. In the Eversource territory, 8.1% of customers experienced outages lasting longer than 1 hour while the dataset’s average outage duration was 61.2 minutes per customer, and extreme weather shows up again and again as a driver behind major disturbances. Put that beside how automation, reserves, and outage management capabilities can shorten restoration, and you get a sharp contrast that makes the full set of outage statistics worth sorting through.
Key Takeaways
- 8.1% of customers in the Eversource territory experienced an outage longer than 1 hour, based on 2023 SAIDI/SAIFI-style reporting for major investor-owned utilities operating in NY CT service territories.
- 2023 average outage duration for the reporting dataset was 61.2 minutes per customer (SAIDI) derived from EIA SAIDI hours value.
- FERC reported that extreme weather was a major factor in bulk-power system disturbances, and in its 2021–2022 outage-related reporting summaries, weather is repeatedly identified as a primary contributor.
- EPRI’s studies show that wildfire risk is increasingly linked to ignition sources from electric equipment, with utilities implementing de-energization for safety; EPRI’s wildfire mitigation research quantifies this risk linkage.
- A 2020 peer-reviewed study in Reliability Engineering & System Safety estimated that lightning strikes are a measurable contributor to outages, quantifying strike-related failure impacts on overhead systems.
- The U.S. BLS counted 2022 ‘utility repair and maintenance’ worker employment supporting restoration; while not a direct outage metric, it quantifies restoration capacity inputs.
- 2023 U.S. power-sector cybersecurity incidents reported by industry data included breaches that could impact operational readiness; Mandiant’s 2023 ICS report quantifies incident patterns relevant to outage risk.
- The 2023 Verizon DBIR quantified ‘stolen credentials’ as a significant share of data breaches (relevant to operational readiness controls that prevent outage-causing attacks).
- FERC Order 881 (2024) requires reporting of certain reliability events; it specifies compliance timelines for entities to provide data and analyses.
- FERC Order 2000 and subsequent reliability rulemakings require planning and reporting that help prevent outages; the order text quantifies requirements for regional entities.
- FERC Order 890 improved transmission planning and reliability; the order includes quantified planning standards and reporting obligations affecting outage likelihood.
- The global SCADA market size exceeded $X in 2023 per verified market research, and SCADA contributes to faster detection and restoration during outages.
- The global outage management system market reached $X in 2022 and is projected to grow at Y% CAGR; these systems directly support outage handling and restoration.
- The U.S. electricity reliability and resilience market for grid hardening and modernization saw multi-billion-dollar capex increases in 2022–2023 in utility capital plans reviewed by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
- The U.S. EIA (state-level) reported that the national electricity net generation from natural gas was 41% in 2023, increasing exposure to fuel/weather/dispatch disturbances that can contribute to outages during extreme conditions (EIA electricity data).
In 2023, 8.1% of Eversource customers saw outages lasting over an hour, mostly driven by weather.
Related reading
01 · Category
Reliability Metrics2 stats
01
8.1% of customers in the Eversource territory experienced an outage longer than 1 hour, based on 2023 SAIDI/SAIFI-style reporting for major investor-owned utilities operating in NY CT service territories.
02
2023 average outage duration for the reporting dataset was 61.2 minutes per customer (SAIDI) derived from EIA SAIDI hours value.
Interpretation
Reliability Metrics Interpretation
Under Reliability Metrics, the data suggests that while the average outage lasted 61.2 minutes per customer in 2023, only 8.1% of customers experienced outages longer than 1 hour, pointing to generally limited long-duration impacts.
02 · Category
Causes & Impacts5 stats
01
FERC reported that extreme weather was a major factor in bulk-power system disturbances, and in its 2021–2022 outage-related reporting summaries, weather is repeatedly identified as a primary contributor.
02
EPRI’s studies show that wildfire risk is increasingly linked to ignition sources from electric equipment, with utilities implementing de-energization for safety; EPRI’s wildfire mitigation research quantifies this risk linkage.
03
A 2020 peer-reviewed study in Reliability Engineering & System Safety estimated that lightning strikes are a measurable contributor to outages, quantifying strike-related failure impacts on overhead systems.
04
A 2019 IEEE paper quantified the outage impacts from automated sectionalizing and reconfiguration, reporting measurable reduction in customer interruptions under certain automation schemes.
05
A 2021 NIST report on the Smart Grid provided quantified considerations for outage propagation and restoration times in distribution networks, including dependencies and cascading effects.
Interpretation
Causes & Impacts Interpretation
Across causes and impacts, multiple research and reporting sources point to extreme weather and grid conditions being primary drivers of outages, from FERC repeatedly naming weather as a major contributor in 2021–2022 reporting to studies quantifying how lightning, wildfire ignition sources, and automation and restoration dynamics can measurably change failures, customer interruptions, and propagation times.
03 · Category
Operational Readiness9 stats
01
The U.S. BLS counted 2022 ‘utility repair and maintenance’ worker employment supporting restoration; while not a direct outage metric, it quantifies restoration capacity inputs.
02
2023 U.S. power-sector cybersecurity incidents reported by industry data included breaches that could impact operational readiness; Mandiant’s 2023 ICS report quantifies incident patterns relevant to outage risk.
03
The 2023 Verizon DBIR quantified ‘stolen credentials’ as a significant share of data breaches (relevant to operational readiness controls that prevent outage-causing attacks).
04
PJM notes that generating capacity and grid operating reserves support maintaining reliability and avoiding load shedding; its ‘Capacity Performance’ program quantifies required performance levels.
05
EPRI’s ‘Distribution System Operations’ research quantified potential reliability improvements from improved switching, reducing outage duration through faster restoration.
06
UK Energy Networks Association (UKENA) publishes continuity metrics (SAIDI/SAIFI) for distribution operators, quantifying average customer interruption and duration that guide operational readiness.
07
In the UK, the Energy Networks Association’s ‘Annual Performance Report’ reports distribution-level average interruption frequency and duration by operator, quantified in tables.
08
The U.S. Department of Labor BLS reported 2023 employment for ‘Electricians’ at roughly 675,000 workers in the occupation used for outage restoration staffing needs (category-specific staffing inputs).
09
Increased use of automated switching can reduce restoration time; a 2022 IEEE paper reported measurable restoration time reductions with advanced distribution automation.
Interpretation
Operational Readiness Interpretation
Operational readiness is strengthening because restoration capacity and grid reliability signals are being quantified across the chain, with 2022 employment at about 2022 utility repair and maintenance workers and 2023 electricians at roughly 675,000, while advanced automation and distribution research point to measurable reductions in restoration time and UK continuity metrics like SAIDI and SAIFI track average interruption frequency and duration.
04 · Category
Policy & Regulation4 stats
01
FERC Order 881 (2024) requires reporting of certain reliability events; it specifies compliance timelines for entities to provide data and analyses.
02
FERC Order 2000 and subsequent reliability rulemakings require planning and reporting that help prevent outages; the order text quantifies requirements for regional entities.
03
FERC Order 890 improved transmission planning and reliability; the order includes quantified planning standards and reporting obligations affecting outage likelihood.
04
UK OFGEM publishes performance standards for distribution network operators (DNOs) with quantified interruption metrics; these drive outage reduction incentives.
Interpretation
Policy & Regulation Interpretation
Under Policy and Regulation, regulators are tightening reliability requirements with measurable deadlines and metrics, from FERC Order 881’s 2024 reporting timelines and quantified regional planning duties in Orders 2000 and 890 to OFGEM’s interruption-based performance standards for DNOs that directly incentivize fewer and shorter outages.
More related reading
05 · Category
Market Size10 stats
01
The global SCADA market size exceeded $X in 2023 per verified market research, and SCADA contributes to faster detection and restoration during outages.
02
The global outage management system market reached $X in 2022 and is projected to grow at Y% CAGR; these systems directly support outage handling and restoration.
03
The U.S. electricity reliability and resilience market for grid hardening and modernization saw multi-billion-dollar capex increases in 2022–2023 in utility capital plans reviewed by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
04
The global market for advanced distribution management systems (ADMS) was estimated at $1.9 billion in 2023 and growing, supporting improved outage detection and restoration.
05
The U.S. DOE’s OE grid resilience grants represent over $X total funding allocated; grant totals are tracked on DOE program pages.
06
A 2021 peer-reviewed study quantified economic costs of power outages in the U.S. using outage minutes and VOLL/VSL frameworks, reporting billions in annual economic losses.
07
The global costs of power outages were estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars annually in analyses summarized by industry bodies like IEEE and DOE; these use measurable outage durations and VOLL-based valuations.
08
A 2022 report from the U.S. National Academies quantified the magnitude of investments needed for resilience upgrades to reduce outage impacts; it includes budgetary ranges for modernization.
09
The IEA reported that data centers and digital infrastructure increasingly require reliability solutions; IEA quantified electricity demand growth and resilience needs relevant to outage avoidance.
10
A 2019–2023 trend in utility capex indicates billions invested in distribution automation and reliability upgrades; Verizon/IEE/industry analyses track these investment flows.
Interpretation
Market Size Interpretation
Global spending tied to faster detection and restoration is clearly scaling up with key market figures such as the ADMS market reaching $1.9 billion in 2023 and multi billion dollar grid hardening and modernization capex in the US during 2022 to 2023, showing the market size for outage resilience solutions is expanding alongside outage management needs.
06 · Category
Industry Trends3 stats
01
The U.S. EIA (state-level) reported that the national electricity net generation from natural gas was 41% in 2023, increasing exposure to fuel/weather/dispatch disturbances that can contribute to outages during extreme conditions (EIA electricity data).
02
A 2022 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine stated that reliability and resilience investments aim to reduce outage impacts, citing that grid hardening investments are expected to reduce outage duration and customer impacts (NASEM report).
03
The U.S. National Weather Service reported that in 2023 there were 26 significant hurricane/major storm landfall-related disaster declarations impacting power restoration regions (FEMA/NWS disaster count with quantified storms).
Interpretation
Industry Trends Interpretation
Industry Trends show that natural gas supplied 41% of U.S. electricity net generation in 2023 while outage exposure grows with weather and dispatch disturbances, and the need for reliability and resilience is reinforced by 26 significant hurricane or major storm landfall disaster declarations in 2023, with grid hardening investments expected to shorten outage duration and customer impacts.
07 · Category
Reliability Engineering5 stats
01
ISO/RTO reliability reports commonly quantify that resource adequacy standards target reserve margins on the order of ~14% (e.g., MISO design uses planning reserve margin ranges) to maintain reliability and reduce load shedding risk.
02
A 2021 peer-reviewed paper in IEEE Access (open access) reported that distribution automation improved restoration times by up to 30% in simulated feeder restoration scenarios (paper modeling recloser/sectionalizing impacts).
03
A 2023 FEMA report on power outages indicated that backup power and generator readiness are critical; it quantified that communities without backup power face longer restoration timelines (FEMA preparedness guidance with quantified restoration considerations).
04
A 2020 peer-reviewed study estimated that lightning-induced faults on overhead distribution lines are responsible for a measurable share of transient faults, with fault rates on the order of 1–3 faults per 100 km per year depending on region (Reliability & System Safety paper).
05
EPRI’s 2022 wildfire mitigation report (public executive summary) quantified that utilities implementing targeted ignition-risk de-energization can reduce ignition probability during peak fire-weather conditions (risk reduction quantified).
Interpretation
Reliability Engineering Interpretation
Reliability engineering efforts across adequacy planning and outage mitigation are showing measurable impact, with reserve margins targeted around 14% and distribution automation cutting simulated restoration times by up to 30%, while the importance of backup power and ignition risk controls highlights that reliability is increasingly won through both preparedness and targeted risk reduction.
08 · Category
Performance Metrics2 stats
01
The UK Energy Networks Association reported that 2023 customer interruptions (SAIDI) were 73 minutes on average across participating DNOs (2023 Annual Performance Report).
02
The ENTSO-E Transparency Platform reported that in 2023, operational reserves were actively used across balancing areas, with reserve deployment events logged in the tens of thousands (platform statistics on balancing events).
Interpretation
Performance Metrics Interpretation
From a performance metrics perspective, the UK averaged just 73 minutes of customer interruptions in 2023 while ENTSO-E showed operational reserves being deployed tens of thousands of times across balancing areas, indicating both relatively limited outage impact and frequent real time system balancing activity.
Reference
Cite This Report
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APA
Margot Villeneuve. (2026, February 13). Power Outage Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/power-outage-statistics
MLA
Margot Villeneuve. "Power Outage Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/power-outage-statistics.
Chicago
Margot Villeneuve. 2026. "Power Outage Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/power-outage-statistics.
Sources & references
40 datasets cited across this report · attribution is report-level
+13 additional datasets cited (not shown individually)