Power Out Map
– 0% of Ben Hill out 0 customers out in Georgia

Power outage history

Ben Hill County Georgia

6.2hours

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

102nd most of 156 in Georgia close to the national median

Worst outage on record Hurricane Helene · Sep 28, 2024 28% of customers out · 90% back in 4.0 days
Hours without power, average customer per year 6.2h / yr State average 6.7 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 0.9 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 7hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 6.2days Hurricane Helene, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 81% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2024 26 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 14,643 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 Ben Hill'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

2024 was the worst well-recorded year, at 26 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Ben Hill, hours without power per customer

Ben HillUS median countyGeorgia average
0 10 20 30 ’15 ’16 10 ’17 13 ’18 1.1 ’19 1.6 ’20 1.3 ’21 1.8 ’22 3.9 ’23 26 ’24 0.8 ’25 GA 6.7 US 6.6

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 27, 2024 Hurricane Helene 4,143 28% 6.2 d 4.0 d 338k
Oct 11, 2018 Hurricane Michael 3,146 21% 3.2 d 40 h 123k
Sep 12, 2017 Hurricane Irma 2,250 15% 3.4 d 2.9 d 99k
Sep 11, 2017 Hurricane Irma 3,204 22% 20 h 9.5 h 44k
Nov 23, 2018 No storm report 664 5% 2.6 d – 40k
Sep 27, 2024 Hurricane Helene 3,262 22% 7.0 h 12 min 21k
Aug 30, 2023 Hurricane Idalia 2,048 14% 12 h 6.8 h 16k
May 4, 2021 Thunderstorms 1,043 7% 14 h 13 h 7.4k
Mar 4, 2023 No storm report 156 1% 41 h – 6.0k
Jun 26, 2025 Thunderstorms 688 5% 11 h – 4.5k
Nov 30, 2020 No storm report 744 5% 11 h 13 h 4.1k
Oct 10, 2018 Hurricane Michael 2,859 20% 3.5 h 12 min 3.7k

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 +4h 90% by +10h

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 Ben Hill from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.

  • Tropical storm 77%
  • No storm on record 19%
  • Thunderstorms 4.1%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Ben Hill

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

Utility Type Outage min / yr Excl. major storms Outages / yr Residential ¢/kWh Customers
Georgia Power Co Investor Owned 287 155 1.83 16.3 2.5M
Fitzgerald Wtr Lgt & Bond Comm GA – – – 12.9 78k
Middle Georgia El Member Corp GA – – – 12.7 76k
Satilla Rural Elec Member Corporation Cooperative – – – 14.7 54k
Irwin Electric Membership Corp Cooperative – – – 16.5 11k

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 Georgia

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All Georgia 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 14,643 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 →