Original research · Reliability
Power Outage Hours by State, 2024
How long the average electricity customer in each state was without power in 2024, computed from the reliability figures 710 utilities filed with the US Energy Information Administration.
Written by HyreElectrical Research Desk Primary-source research and fact checking
The finding
Power outage hours by state ranged from 50.8 hours in South Carolina to half an hour in the District of Columbia in 2024, by HyreElectrical’s customer-weighted calculation from EIA Form EIA-861.
The national average was 10.9 hours per customer, up from 6.1 hours in 2023. Almost all of that came on major event days: with them removed, the average customer lost about 2.2 hours.
South Carolina, Maine, Texas, North Carolina and Florida each averaged more than 24 hours.
EIA’s own summary of the same year, about 11 hours nationally and nearly 53 in South Carolina, agrees closely; the small gap is our method, explained below.
What these numbers are, and are not
Each figure is an average per customer across a whole state. Most customers had far less outage time than the average and a few had far more, because one hurricane can leave part of a state dark for days. A state average does not tell you how often your street loses power.
Only utilities that report under the IEEE 1366 standard are counted. They serve 78.6% of US electricity customers in this data. In 6 jurisdictions (Virginia, Vermont, New York, Hawaii, Oklahoma, Alabama) they serve under half, so those rows describe part of the state, not all of it.
All 50 states and DC, longest outages first
Source fact. SAIDI is the total minutes of sustained interruption the average customer experienced in a year. Major event days are days whose outage total crosses a statistical threshold set by IEEE 1366, usually severe storms. HyreElectrical calculation. Hours = customer-weighted SAIDI ÷ 60.
| State | 2024 hours (with major events) | 2024 hours (without) | Interruptions per customer | 2023 hours (with) | Customer coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Carolina | 50.8 | 1.9 | 2.37 | 2.8 | 86.2% |
| Maine | 29.1 | 4.6 | 3.64 | 31.1 | 100.3% |
| Texas | 26.7 | 2.4 | 2.29 | 9.7 | 62.5% |
| North Carolina | 25.4 | 2.4 | 1.83 | 4.4 | 90.2% |
| Florida | 24.8 | 1.1 | 1.78 | 2.9 | 84.1% |
| Georgia | 19.9 | 3.5 | 2.10 | 5.7 | 86.4% |
| West Virginia | 19.4 | 8.1 | 2.83 | 12.5 | 97.3% |
| Virginia | 16.2 | 4.1 | 2.24 | 4.9 | 29.8% (low) |
| Vermont | 14.9 | 3.9 | 3.34 | 8.1 | 10.5% (low) |
| New Hampshire | 12.3 | 1.4 | 1.62 | 9.8 | 88.1% |
| Nebraska | 11.6 | 1.2 | 1.24 | 1.2 | 66.2% |
| Washington | 10.7 | 2.6 | 1.77 | 2.6 | 90% |
| Louisiana | 10.5 | 3.6 | 2.36 | 11.1 | 72.3% |
| Oregon | 9.7 | 2.1 | 1.32 | 2.0 | 87.5% |
| Kentucky | 9.0 | 2.4 | 1.78 | 14.4 | 93.8% |
| Arkansas | 8.8 | 3.4 | 2.14 | 15.3 | 82% |
| Mississippi | 8.6 | 4.2 | 2.48 | 13.9 | 60.7% |
| Ohio | 8.6 | 2.2 | 1.30 | 6.1 | 96% |
| Michigan | 8.0 | 2.7 | 1.36 | 18.8 | 94.3% |
| New York | 8.0 | 2.4 | 1.67 | 3.4 | 23.8% (low) |
| Hawaii | 6.4 | 3.7 | 4.39 | 4.2 | 6.9% (low) |
| Pennsylvania | 5.9 | 2.2 | 1.39 | 4.4 | 84.4% |
| Montana | 5.7 | 2.5 | 1.63 | 1.9 | 72.3% |
| Alaska | 5.4 | 3.2 | 2.32 | 8.3 | 79.5% |
| Indiana | 5.2 | 2.0 | 1.28 | 7.8 | 83.8% |
| Wisconsin | 5.0 | 1.6 | 1.04 | 3.4 | 74.2% |
| Tennessee | 4.8 | 2.8 | 1.94 | 15.4 | 73.5% |
| Kansas | 4.8 | 1.7 | 1.50 | 4.8 | 76.5% |
| California | 4.8 | 2.7 | 1.35 | 5.9 | 94.3% |
| New Mexico | 4.5 | 2.5 | 1.33 | 2.6 | 85.2% |
| Colorado | 4.3 | 2.0 | 1.41 | 1.6 | 91% |
| Minnesota | 3.7 | 1.5 | 1.26 | 2.1 | 86.9% |
| Oklahoma | 3.7 | 2.0 | 1.58 | 22.3 | 46.2% (low) |
| Idaho | 3.4 | 2.5 | 1.31 | 2.2 | 93.2% |
| Missouri | 3.4 | 1.7 | 1.18 | 6.2 | 81.9% |
| Iowa | 3.3 | 1.4 | 1.21 | 1.4 | 52.9% |
| Alabama | 3.1 | 1.9 | 1.75 | 6.3 | 13.3% (low) |
| New Jersey | 2.9 | 1.6 | 1.12 | 1.8 | 99.2% |
| Nevada | 2.6 | 1.1 | 1.11 | 2.3 | 103.1% |
| Illinois | 2.6 | 1.0 | 0.85 | 3.5 | 96.3% |
| Connecticut | 2.5 | 1.2 | 0.88 | 3.2 | 99.8% |
| Wyoming | 2.1 | 1.7 | 1.00 | 1.8 | 67.4% |
| Delaware | 2.0 | 1.1 | 0.85 | 1.8 | 87.5% |
| Maryland | 2.0 | 1.3 | 0.82 | 2.8 | 98.6% |
| Utah | 1.8 | 1.7 | 1.01 | 2.0 | 81.6% |
| Rhode Island | 1.7 | 1.0 | 0.90 | 1.7 | 97.6% |
| Massachusetts | 1.7 | 1.3 | 0.85 | 4.4 | 90.2% |
| North Dakota | 1.7 | 1.4 | 0.94 | 4.4 | 83.6% |
| South Dakota | 1.4 | 1.0 | 0.82 | 1.3 | 70.8% |
| Arizona | 1.4 | 1.1 | 0.96 | 1.7 | 94.4% |
| District of Columbia | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.27 | 1.2 | 98.9% |
Coverage above 100% in a few states reflects utilities counting customers differently on the reliability and sales schedules; it is shown as filed.
Why 2024 was long: storm days, not everyday outages
Without major event days, every state averaged under nine hours and most between one and four. Add them back and the Southeast and Texas separate from everyone else. EIA attributes most of 2024’s outage time to Hurricanes Beryl (Texas, July), Helene (ten states, September) and Milton (Florida, October).
HYRE analysis. South Carolina shows the pattern at its most extreme: 1.9 hours on ordinary days, 50.8 with storm days.
Maine is the exception that is not a hurricane story; it was also among the longest in 2023 (31.1 hours), which points to recurring winter and wind storms on a rural, heavily wooded network rather than one bad year.
What this means for a home’s electrical setup
Long outages are a planning question, not a wiring fault. In a state where storm outages run into days, homeowners ask about standby or portable generators and how they connect.
A generator must never be back-fed through an outlet; it connects through a transfer switch or interlock fitted by a licensed electrician under permit. If a line is down, stay away and call the utility or 911.
For the backup-power and surge questions that follow an outage, see our surge protection guide and electrical safety hub.
Limitations
Utilities reporting under another standard are excluded so every row uses one definition. That is why our national figure (10.9 h) and EIA’s published figure (about 11 h) differ slightly, and why low-coverage states are flagged.
SAIDI averages across all customers. A customer out for a week and a neighbor never out produce the same average as two customers out for half a week.
EIA collects these figures from utilities; it does not meter outages itself.
This edition compares 2024 with 2023. It is not a long-run trend.
Method
Data. EIA Form EIA-861 annual files for 2024 (f8612024.zip) and 2023, downloaded 27 October 2026. Sheet Reliability_States: one row per utility per state.
Filter. Rows with an IEEE 1366 SAIDI, SAIFI and customer count. 710 utility-state rows, 128,736,164 customers in 2024.
Weighting. State SAIDI = Σ(utility SAIDI × customers) ÷ Σ customers, computed separately with and without major event days; divided by 60 for hours. National = the same over all states.
Coverage. IEEE customers ÷ all bundled and delivery customers in the 2024 Sales_Ult_Cust_2024 sheet.
Reproducibility. The script and the CSV below reproduce every number on this page.
Cite or embed this data
Cite as: HyreElectrical Research Desk, “Power Outage Hours by State, 2024” (October 27, 2026), https://hyreelectrical.com/research/power-outage-hours-by-state/. Calculated from EIA Form EIA-861. Free to reuse with a link.
Embed snippet: <p>2024 power outage hours by state: <a href="https://hyreelectrical.com/research/power-outage-hours-by-state/">HyreElectrical analysis of EIA-861 data</a>.</p>
Questions
Which state had the most power outage hours in 2024?
How many hours did the average US customer lose power in 2024?
What is SAIDI?
What are major event days?
Does a high state average mean my home will lose power often?
Can I use this data?
Written and audited by
HyreElectrical Research Desk
Primary-source research and fact checking
We read the model code, the federal safety notice, the municipal fee sheet or the utility tariff ourselves, and we publish the figure with the document it came from and the date we retrieved it.
Where a number cannot be traced to a primary source, we publish the shorter page and say what we could not verify. HyreElectrical does not perform, supervise or warrant electrical work. Authorship is organizational: this desk, not a named persona.
- 16
- original research studies published
- 5
- states with verified license records
- 16,369
- electrical companies in those records
- 74%
- of the store is Florida — disclosed first, not footnoted
How this desk works
- Primary sources only. Code statements come from NFPA 70 as the model code. Safety statements come from CPSC. Permit fees come from the city or county fee sheet. Utility charges come from the filed tariff. We do not cite a blog that cites a source; we open the source.
- Our contractor store is five states, and 74% of it is Florida. Any figure built on that store is titled to those states and names the concentration in the first screen. It is not a national sample of electricians.
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Data as of 27 October 2026. Authorship on this site is organizational: the analysis belongs to the desk rather than to a named individual, and we do not publish credentials we do not hold. Our editorial policy sets out how we source, date and correct what we publish.
The data behind this page
Every figure on this page is computed from one file, and that file is published here so the analysis can be checked, disagreed with, or reused.
Sources & retrieval dates
Planning for the next long outage?
Backup power connects through a transfer switch or interlock fitted by a licensed electrician under permit. We do not perform electrical work.
HyreElectrical does not perform, supervise or warrant electrical work, and takes no payment for placement, ranking or favorable mention. Figures are HyreElectrical calculations from public EIA data.