Power outage history
Plumas County California
85hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
2nd most of 56 in California 13× the national median
Every day since 2015
Eleven years, one night at a time
Each cell is a day. The brighter it is, the larger the share of Plumas's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2021 was the worst well-recorded year, at 16.3 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Plumas, hours without power per customer
The record
The biggest outages since 2015
Ranked by customer-hours lost: customers out multiplied by how long they stayed out. Times are local.
| Began | Storm | Peak out | Share | Lasted | 90% restored | Customer-hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 18, 2021 | Wildfire | 8,302 | 90% | 114.4 d | 6.9 d | 3.0M |
| Sep 7, 2020 | Windstorm | 9,230 | 100% | 3.9 d | 43 h | 406k |
| Dec 13, 2021 | Winter storm | 6,218 | 67% | 7.4 d | 26 h | 359k |
| Mar 1, 2024 | Winter storm | 6,087 | 66% | 3.1 d | 2.9 d | 196k |
| Oct 26, 2019 | No storm report | 9,230 | 100% | 5.1 d | 15 h | 155k |
| Nov 8, 2018 | No storm report | 9,230 | 100% | 17 h | 14 h | 113k |
| Feb 25, 2019 | Winter storm | 5,009 | 54% | 2.7 d | 3.0 h | 105k |
| Oct 25, 2020 | No storm report | 2,274 | 25% | 2.9 d | 19 h | 104k |
| Dec 25, 2021 | Winter storm | 3,342 | 36% | 5.2 d | 2.1 d | 95k |
| Aug 25, 2025 | No storm report | 9,230 | 100% | 18 h | 4.8 h | 86k |
| Jul 2, 2024 | No storm report | 9,230 | 100% | 9.5 h | 8.2 h | 65k |
| Dec 24, 2025 | Winter storm | 9,230 | 100% | 3.8 d | 1.0 h | 61k |
| Mar 16, 2020 | Winter storm | 6,373 | 69% | 28 h | 3.5 h | 60k |
| Sep 27, 2020 | No storm report | 4,183 | 45% | 38 h | 23 h | 43k |
| Mar 29, 2024 | Winter storm | 1,846 | 20% | 24 h | 22 h | 42k |
| Jun 24, 2021 | No storm report | 9,230 | 100% | 4.8 h | 4.5 h | 41k |
| Sep 29, 2023 | Winter storm | 9,230 | 100% | 5.5 h | 4.2 h | 36k |
| Nov 17, 2020 | Windstorm | 6,605 | 72% | 19 h | 4.5 h | 30k |
| Jan 18, 2021 | Windstorm | 3,470 | 38% | 2.1 d | 4.2 h | 30k |
| May 11, 2025 | Windstorm | 1,650 | 18% | 19 h | 19 h | 30k |
| Feb 4, 2019 | Winter storm | 5,217 | 57% | 18 h | 7.8 h | 27k |
| Jan 6, 2019 | Winter storm | 4,905 | 53% | 26 h | 3.5 h | 24k |
| Mar 30, 2023 | No storm report | 3,406 | 37% | 7.0 h | 7.0 h | 23k |
| Jul 14, 2021 | Wildfire | 9,230 | 100% | 3.0 h | 2.8 h | 23k |
| Jul 25, 2018 | No storm report | 4,022 | 44% | 7.8 h | 9.0 h | 21k |
| Nov 8, 2022 | Winter storm | 476 | 5% | 46 h | 30 h | 20k |
| May 15, 2022 | No storm report | 3,396 | 37% | 6.0 h | 5.8 h | 20k |
| Oct 10, 2019 | No storm report | 626 | 7% | 48 h | 44 h | 19k |
| Jul 25, 2019 | No storm report | 1,672 | 18% | 12 h | 12 h | 18k |
| Apr 26, 2024 | No storm report | 9,230 | 100% | 3.2 h | 8.0 h | 18k |
After the peak
How fast the lights come back
Each line is one major outage, from its peak. The amber line is the typical path.
When it happens
The outage clock
Customer-hours out by month (rings, January innermost) and local hour, 2018–2025.
What was happening
Weather behind the outages
Each outage is matched to NOAA storm reports for Plumas from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Wildfire 50%
- No storm on record 22%
- Winter storm 19%
- Windstorm 8.6%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Plumas
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole California territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pacific Gas & Electric Co. | Investor Owned | 273 | 208 | 1.63 | 37.5 | 5.1M |
| Plumas-Sierra Rural Elec Coop | CA | 14,622 | – | – | 18.7 | 58k |
| Liberty Utilities | Investor Owned | 614 | 435 | 3.09 | 27.6 | 45k |
EIA Form 861, latest year each utility reported. Outage minutes are SAIDI, the yearly minutes the average customer goes without power; outages a year are SAIFI.
About these numbers
Notes
Outages come from the EAGLE-I record of utility outage maps collected every 15 minutes by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Hours without power are customer-hours divided by the county's 9,230 electricity customers. Averages use well-covered years from 2018. Outages shorter than 15 minutes, and utilities that publish no outage map, are not in the record, so these figures understate the total. How every number is made →