Power outage history
Sumter County Georgia
9.2hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
69th most of 156 in Georgia 1.4× 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 Sumter's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2018 was the worst well-recorded year, at 38 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Sumter, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 10, 2018 | Hurricane Michael | 13,270 | 95% | 3.2 d | 2.5 d | 501k |
| Sep 11, 2017 | Hurricane Irma | 10,452 | 75% | 3.9 d | 2.8 d | 353k |
| Apr 13, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 2,327 | 17% | 21 h | 10 h | 22k |
| Jul 21, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 2,249 | 16% | 19 h | 15 h | 19k |
| Jun 25, 2023 | No storm report | 1,585 | 11% | 16 h | 15 h | 11k |
| Aug 11, 2021 | No storm report | 2,771 | 20% | 9.2 h | 7.0 h | 7.8k |
| Feb 6, 2020 | No storm report | 3,134 | 22% | 8.0 h | 2.8 h | 7.4k |
| May 4, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 1,273 | 9% | 16 h | 15 h | 7.2k |
| Jun 8, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 1,778 | 13% | 9.8 h | 8.2 h | 7.0k |
| Sep 11, 2020 | No storm report | 1,953 | 14% | 6.8 h | 3.2 h | 6.4k |
| May 27, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 852 | 6% | 8.5 h | 2.5 h | 5.2k |
| May 24, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 1,651 | 12% | 6.8 h | 6.0 h | 5.1k |
| May 11, 2025 | No storm report | 671 | 5% | 7.5 h | – | 5.0k |
| Aug 8, 2023 | No storm report | 1,212 | 9% | 14 h | 13 h | 4.7k |
| Feb 8, 2022 | No storm report | 869 | 6% | 8.5 h | 7.5 h | 4.7k |
| Sep 16, 2020 | Hurricane Sally | 459 | 3% | 19 h | – | 4.6k |
| Feb 12, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 1,658 | 12% | 6.0 h | 5.8 h | 4.5k |
| Jan 9, 2024 | No storm report | 1,340 | 10% | 9.8 h | 3.8 h | 4.4k |
| Jul 30, 2023 | No storm report | 855 | 6% | 10 h | 11 h | 4.3k |
| Aug 17, 2021 | Tropical Storm Fred | 907 | 6% | 13 h | 16 h | 4.2k |
| May 10, 2024 | No storm report | 892 | 6% | 13 h | 14 h | 4.2k |
| Jan 8, 2015 | No storm report | 1,968 | 14% | 2.0 h | 1.2 h | 3.9k |
| Jul 6, 2023 | No storm report | 429 | 3% | 14 h | – | 3.9k |
| Jun 15, 2023 | No storm report | 1,395 | 10% | 5.2 h | 4.0 h | 3.4k |
| Oct 29, 2020 | Hurricane Zeta | 484 | 3% | 7.5 h | – | 3.3k |
| May 25, 2022 | No storm report | 1,075 | 8% | 3.0 h | 2.5 h | 3.2k |
| Jul 10, 2016 | No storm report | 439 | 3% | 7.5 h | – | 3.2k |
| Sep 27, 2024 | Hurricane Helene | 523 | 4% | 10 h | – | 3.2k |
| Jan 3, 2022 | No storm report | 1,129 | 8% | 5.5 h | 4.2 h | 3.1k |
| Sep 13, 2025 | No storm report | 632 | 5% | 6.8 h | – | 3.0k |
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 Sumter from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 60%
- No storm on record 31%
- Thunderstorms 8.8%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Sumter
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 |
| Flint Electric Membership Corp | Cooperative | 151 | 101 | 1.22 | 13.4 | 85k |
| Sumter Electric Member Corp | Cooperative | 159 | 134 | – | 14.6 | 15k |
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 13,979 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 →