Power outage history
El Paso County Colorado
1.0hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
38th most of 39 in Colorado 84% 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 El Paso'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 2.9 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
El Paso, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 15, 2021 | Windstorm | 33,979 | 9% | 2.6 d | 2.5 d | 600k |
| Jan 9, 2017 | Windstorm | 20,251 | 6% | 24 h | 31 h | 191k |
| May 6, 2024 | No storm report | 10,944 | 3% | 8.8 h | 16 h | 66k |
| Mar 14, 2019 | Winter storm | 7,312 | 2% | 12 h | 23 h | 60k |
| Mar 24, 2017 | Winter storm | 13,537 | 4% | 10 h | 2.2 h | 54k |
| Jun 14, 2021 | No storm report | 5,684 | 2% | 6.5 h | 12 min | 37k |
| Jun 8, 2021 | No storm report | 16,175 | 4% | 1.8 h | 5.2 h | 24k |
| Mar 18, 2025 | No storm report | 6,445 | 2% | 4.0 h | 16 h | 17k |
| Apr 7, 2024 | Windstorm | 5,539 | 2% | 3.0 h | 2.2 h | 16k |
| Nov 29, 2023 | No storm report | 8,985 | 2% | 1.8 h | 4.0 h | 14k |
| Jul 19, 2017 | No storm report | 9,568 | 3% | 1.5 h | 1.8 h | 13k |
| Jun 9, 2021 | No storm report | 10,905 | 3% | 1.5 h | 3.2 h | 13k |
| Mar 14, 2024 | Winter storm | 4,955 | 1% | 2.5 h | – | 11k |
| Aug 19, 2016 | Flooding | 15,721 | 4% | 1.2 h | 1.0 h | 10k |
| Sep 7, 2022 | No storm report | 7,782 | 2% | 1.5 h | 1.0 h | 9.9k |
| Apr 12, 2020 | No storm report | 4,656 | 1% | 2.0 h | – | 9.3k |
| Mar 15, 2020 | No storm report | 7,273 | 2% | 1.2 h | 48 min | 8.4k |
| Mar 4, 2021 | Winter storm | 7,899 | 2% | 1.5 h | 2.5 h | 8.4k |
| May 20, 2017 | No storm report | 6,431 | 2% | 1.2 h | 1.2 h | 8.0k |
| Oct 17, 2021 | No storm report | 10,461 | 3% | 48 min | 1.5 h | 7.8k |
| Mar 4, 2025 | Windstorm | 5,503 | 2% | 1.5 h | 13 h | 7.8k |
| Dec 20, 2017 | No storm report | 4,346 | 1% | 1.8 h | – | 7.6k |
| May 2, 2023 | No storm report | 3,766 | 1% | 2.0 h | – | 7.5k |
| Sep 30, 2023 | No storm report | 5,704 | 2% | 1.2 h | 1.2 h | 7.1k |
| Jun 15, 2023 | No storm report | 4,516 | 1% | 1.5 h | – | 6.8k |
| Dec 25, 2020 | No storm report | 8,795 | 2% | 48 min | 1.8 h | 6.6k |
| Jul 28, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 3,869 | 1% | 1.8 h | – | 6.6k |
| Jun 2, 2017 | No storm report | 6,472 | 2% | 1.0 h | 6.8 h | 6.5k |
| Aug 3, 2017 | No storm report | 6,389 | 2% | 1.0 h | 12 min | 6.4k |
| Mar 21, 2021 | Winter storm | 10,012 | 3% | 48 min | 48 min | 6.3k |
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 El Paso from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Windstorm 58%
- No storm on record 31%
- Winter storm 8.9%
- Thunderstorms 1.8%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving El Paso
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 |
| City of Colorado Springs | Municipal | 41 | 41 | 0.68 | 15.4 | 220k |
| CORE Electric Cooperative | Cooperative | 381 | 52 | 0.97 | 15.6 | 169k |
| Black Hills Colorado Electric, LLC | Investor Owned | 95 | 95 | 0.90 | 18.7 | 98k |
| Mountain View Elec Assn, Inc | Cooperative | 130 | 30 | 0.84 | 15.7 | 61k |
| City of Fountain | Municipal | 42 | 42 | 0.56 | 14.1 | 17k |
| Southeast Colorado Power Assn | Cooperative | 1,290 | 1,280 | – | 17.9 | 8.2k |
| 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.
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 361,678 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 →