Power outage history
San Benito County California
3.1hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
50th most of 56 in California 52% below 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 San Benito's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2025 was the worst well-recorded year, at 5.5 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
San Benito, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 6, 2020 | No storm report | 6,709 | 25% | 14 h | 4.5 h | 35k |
| Dec 23, 2025 | Windstorm | 2,472 | 9% | 37 h | 32 h | 32k |
| Dec 14, 2024 | No storm report | 5,234 | 20% | 5.8 h | 5.8 h | 23k |
| Oct 26, 2019 | No storm report | 670 | 3% | 40 h | – | 23k |
| Jun 23, 2025 | No storm report | 12,335 | 46% | 5.5 h | 4.0 h | 20k |
| Jan 4, 2023 | No storm report | 1,165 | 4% | 18 h | – | 14k |
| Dec 18, 2025 | No storm report | 5,288 | 20% | 2.2 h | 2.2 h | 12k |
| Oct 26, 2025 | No storm report | 5,289 | 20% | 2.0 h | 2.0 h | 11k |
| Sep 1, 2018 | No storm report | 9,405 | 35% | 1.8 h | 1.8 h | 10k |
| Jan 19, 2025 | No storm report | 1,521 | 6% | 4.2 h | 8.8 h | 6.5k |
| Oct 11, 2021 | No storm report | 1,021 | 4% | 9.2 h | – | 5.9k |
| Jul 24, 2020 | No storm report | 1,179 | 4% | 5.5 h | – | 4.9k |
| Oct 31, 2023 | No storm report | 1,293 | 5% | 3.8 h | – | 4.7k |
| Jun 10, 2019 | No storm report | 4,485 | 17% | 1.8 h | 1.8 h | 4.7k |
| Feb 4, 2025 | No storm report | 2,100 | 8% | 2.0 h | 1.8 h | 4.2k |
| Aug 27, 2022 | No storm report | 1,194 | 4% | 3.5 h | – | 3.9k |
| Jan 27, 2021 | Windstorm | 1,189 | 4% | 3.0 h | – | 3.6k |
| Sep 25, 2025 | No storm report | 2,179 | 8% | 2.0 h | 1.2 h | 3.3k |
| Feb 13, 2025 | Flooding | 634 | 2% | 5.2 h | – | 3.0k |
| Oct 31, 2021 | No storm report | 596 | 2% | 5.0 h | – | 3.0k |
| Dec 10, 2022 | No storm report | 1,296 | 5% | 2.2 h | – | 2.9k |
| May 8, 2021 | No storm report | 1,186 | 4% | 2.5 h | – | 2.7k |
| Oct 4, 2018 | No storm report | 2,712 | 10% | 2.0 h | 1.2 h | 2.6k |
| Mar 18, 2023 | No storm report | 399 | 1% | 7.5 h | – | 2.6k |
| Apr 23, 2023 | No storm report | 1,197 | 4% | 2.2 h | – | 2.5k |
| Oct 17, 2021 | No storm report | 1,686 | 6% | 2.8 h | 2.8 h | 2.5k |
| Jan 28, 2024 | No storm report | 6,129 | 23% | 1.0 h | 1.5 h | 2.5k |
| Sep 9, 2020 | No storm report | 4,792 | 18% | 30 min | 12 min | 2.4k |
| Nov 15, 2023 | No storm report | 1,197 | 4% | 2.0 h | – | 2.4k |
| May 14, 2019 | No storm report | 1,889 | 7% | 1.2 h | 1.2 h | 2.4k |
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 San Benito from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 87%
- Windstorm 12%
- Flooding 0.9%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving San Benito
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 |
| Central Coast Community Energy | Community Choice Aggregator | – | – | – | – | – |
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.
Next door
Neighbouring counties
- Santa Cruz 24 h
- Monterey 9.9 h
- Santa Clara 4.7 h
- Fresno 3.5 h
- San Benito (this county) 3.1 h
- Merced 2.3 h
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 26,703 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 →