Power outage history
Santa Clara County California
4.7hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
38th most of 56 in California 29% 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 Santa Clara's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2023 was the worst well-recorded year, at 11 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Santa Clara, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 14, 2023 | Windstorm | 138,982 | 16% | 2.4 d | 4.2 h | 3.6M |
| Feb 4, 2024 | Windstorm | 145,840 | 17% | 2.9 d | 44 h | 3.1M |
| Oct 26, 2019 | Wildfire | 29,100 | 3% | 44 h | 40 h | 860k |
| Aug 16, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 34,460 | 4% | 42 h | 38 h | 730k |
| Feb 21, 2023 | Windstorm | 41,409 | 5% | 24 h | 26 h | 538k |
| Jan 10, 2023 | No storm report | 25,456 | 3% | 41 h | 2.2 d | 506k |
| Oct 24, 2021 | No storm report | 35,417 | 4% | 25 h | 34 h | 412k |
| Sep 6, 2022 | Heat | 50,309 | 6% | 13 h | 8.8 h | 381k |
| Jan 10, 2023 | Flooding | 68,962 | 8% | 6.2 h | 5.8 h | 365k |
| Oct 9, 2019 | No storm report | 36,001 | 4% | 9.5 h | 14 h | 293k |
| Jan 19, 2021 | Windstorm | 39,108 | 5% | 16 h | 13 h | 283k |
| Jan 4, 2023 | Windstorm | 21,513 | 3% | 18 h | 21 h | 216k |
| Mar 21, 2023 | Windstorm | 42,513 | 5% | 9.2 h | 20 h | 175k |
| Dec 24, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 30,821 | 4% | 7.8 h | 3.2 h | 140k |
| Mar 12, 2025 | No storm report | 34,450 | 4% | 8.8 h | 11 h | 130k |
| Sep 7, 2022 | Heat | 21,352 | 3% | 7.0 h | 11 h | 116k |
| Jan 26, 2021 | Windstorm | 14,357 | 2% | 9.8 h | 13 h | 104k |
| Sep 5, 2022 | Heat | 15,260 | 2% | 9.2 h | 9.8 h | 97k |
| Dec 14, 2024 | Flooding | 16,863 | 2% | 7.8 h | 8.8 h | 94k |
| Oct 2, 2024 | No storm report | 18,320 | 2% | 5.8 h | 5.5 h | 82k |
| Feb 9, 2020 | Windstorm | 22,332 | 3% | 7.5 h | 5.0 h | 78k |
| Aug 18, 2020 | Wildfire | 19,690 | 2% | 4.5 h | 4.5 h | 74k |
| Jun 21, 2022 | Heat | 20,738 | 2% | 6.0 h | 10 h | 72k |
| Oct 13, 2025 | No storm report | 10,738 | 1% | 5.5 h | 3.8 h | 53k |
| Dec 18, 2023 | No storm report | 19,677 | 2% | 2.8 h | 30 min | 52k |
| Aug 14, 2020 | Heat | 27,057 | 3% | 3.5 h | 14 h | 48k |
| Sep 6, 2020 | Wildfire | 15,010 | 2% | 2.8 h | 6.8 h | 34k |
| Feb 7, 2024 | No storm report | 20,246 | 2% | 3.0 h | 13 h | 33k |
| Sep 21, 2023 | No storm report | 16,346 | 2% | 1.8 h | 30 min | 28k |
| Dec 25, 2025 | Flooding | 10,850 | 1% | 4.0 h | 16 h | 28k |
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 Santa Clara from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Windstorm 63%
- No storm on record 14%
- Wildfire 7.5%
- Thunderstorms 6.7%
- Heat 5.6%
- Flooding 3.8%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Santa Clara
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 |
| City of Santa Clara | Municipal | 69 | 69 | 0.63 | 17.9 | 54k |
| City of Palo Alto | Municipal | 68 | 27 | 0.62 | 21.4 | 26k |
| WAPA-- Western Area Power Administration | Federal | – | – | – | – | – |
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
- San Mateo 8.6 h
- Santa Clara (this county) 4.7 h
- Alameda 3.6 h
- San Benito 3.1 h
- Merced 2.3 h
- Stanislaus 0.4 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 844,715 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 →