Power Out Map
– 0% of Denver out 0 customers out in Colorado

Power outage history

Denver County Colorado

3.0hours

without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025

21st most of 39 in Colorado 54% below the national median

Worst outage on record Mar 13, 2019 15% of customers out · 90% back in 44 hours
Hours without power, average customer per year 3.0h / yr State average 3.0 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 0.3 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 35hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 2.4days Mar 13, 2019, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 77% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2019 5.5 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 398,898 ORNL customer model · 8 well-covered years

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 Denver's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.

20152016201720182019202020212022202320242025
0%100% of customers out

Year by year

Hours in the dark, per customer

2019 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.

Denver, hours without power per customer

DenverUS median countyColorado average
0 2 4 6 8 1.3 ’15 1.5 ’16 1.3 ’17 2.3 ’18 5.5 ’19 2.8 ’20 2.3 ’21 2.8 ’22 2.2 ’23 4.1 ’24 2.0 ’25 US 6.6 CO 3.0

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 13, 2019 Winter storm 61,512 15% 2.4 d 44 h 1.4M
Apr 6, 2024 Windstorm 16,799 4% 42 h 35 h 423k
May 20, 2022 Winter storm 32,049 8% 38 h 31 h 420k
Jun 6, 2020 Thunderstorms 40,714 10% 27 h 26 h 350k
Nov 8, 2024 Winter storm 28,569 7% 20 h 19 h 343k
Mar 23, 2016 Winter storm 21,787 5% 15 h 21 h 191k
Apr 17, 2018 Windstorm 25,179 6% 20 h 20 h 186k
Dec 15, 2021 Windstorm 21,867 5% 11 h 10 h 154k
Dec 17, 2025 Windstorm 16,168 4% 12 h 17 h 95k
Mar 14, 2024 Winter storm 9,674 2% 8.5 h 9.8 h 55k
Jun 5, 2015 No storm report 9,377 2% 6.0 h 13 h 49k
Oct 9, 2017 No storm report 9,426 2% 9.8 h 11 h 49k

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.

0% 25% 50% 75% 100% peak+24h+48h+72h+96h half back by +8h 90% by +26h

When it happens

The outage clock

Customer-hours out by month (rings, January innermost) and local hour, 2018–2025.

00061218 Jan inside

What was happening

Weather behind the outages

Each outage is matched to NOAA storm reports for Denver from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.

  • Winter storm 49%
  • No storm on record 23%
  • Windstorm 19%
  • Thunderstorms 8.4%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Denver

As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Colorado territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.

Utility Type Outage min / yr Excl. major storms Outages / yr Residential ¢/kWh Customers
Public Service Co of Colorado Investor Owned 360 149 1.58 15.9 1.4M

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

Across Colorado

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All Colorado counties →

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 398,898 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 →