Power outage history
Branch County Michigan
15hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
38th most of 83 in Michigan 2.3× 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 Branch'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 40 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Branch, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 12, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 12,027 | 39% | 5.5 d | 4.8 d | 900k |
| Feb 22, 2023 | Ice storm | 6,702 | 22% | 6.3 d | 4.3 d | 534k |
| Jun 9, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 6,767 | 22% | 6.4 d | 2.9 d | 514k |
| Mar 30, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 3,298 | 11% | 4.3 d | 3.3 d | 195k |
| Aug 6, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 4,716 | 15% | 2.3 d | 2.4 d | 151k |
| May 23, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 3,995 | 13% | 41 h | 19 h | 110k |
| Aug 29, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 2,986 | 10% | 2.0 d | 44 h | 96k |
| Sep 1, 2023 | No storm report | 3,525 | 11% | 27 h | 28 h | 94k |
| Oct 7, 2017 | No storm report | 4,737 | 15% | 26 h | 14 h | 92k |
| Jul 26, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 3,573 | 12% | 33 h | 27 h | 66k |
| Jun 20, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 2,531 | 8% | 45 h | 32 h | 66k |
| Mar 3, 2023 | Winter storm | 4,171 | 14% | 24 h | 22 h | 61k |
| Dec 28, 2015 | Winter storm | 2,023 | 7% | 29 h | 19 h | 43k |
| Mar 9, 2017 | No storm report | 2,719 | 9% | 21 h | 33 h | 28k |
| May 16, 2025 | No storm report | 674 | 2% | 2.4 d | – | 28k |
| Jun 13, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 1,898 | 6% | 24 h | 29 h | 28k |
| Oct 31, 2019 | No storm report | 3,517 | 11% | 7.5 h | 7.0 h | 26k |
| Apr 15, 2023 | No storm report | 4,146 | 14% | 6.2 h | 6.8 h | 26k |
| Dec 11, 2021 | Windstorm | 1,809 | 6% | 27 h | 22 h | 25k |
| May 7, 2024 | Tornadoes | 661 | 2% | 2.0 d | – | 24k |
| Oct 20, 2018 | No storm report | 1,356 | 4% | 33 h | – | 24k |
| Mar 29, 2025 | No storm report | 4,117 | 13% | 5.2 h | 6.8 h | 22k |
| Nov 27, 2019 | Windstorm | 1,727 | 6% | 26 h | 23 h | 20k |
| Nov 5, 2022 | No storm report | 870 | 3% | 28 h | – | 17k |
| Sep 7, 2021 | No storm report | 1,051 | 3% | 25 h | – | 17k |
| May 2, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 2,054 | 7% | 16 h | 15 h | 16k |
| Jul 13, 2023 | Tornadoes | 1,785 | 6% | 8.8 h | 11 h | 15k |
| Nov 13, 2020 | No storm report | 3,633 | 12% | 4.0 h | 1.0 h | 14k |
| Mar 10, 2017 | No storm report | 837 | 3% | 21 h | – | 13k |
| Feb 29, 2024 | No storm report | 4,174 | 14% | 3.0 h | 10 h | 13k |
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 Branch from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Thunderstorms 64%
- Ice storm 16%
- No storm on record 15%
- Winter storm 1.9%
- Windstorm 1.3%
- Tornadoes 1.2%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Branch
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Michigan territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DTE Electric Company | Investor Owned | 192 | 151 | 1.16 | 20.3 | 2.1M |
| Consumers Energy Co | Investor Owned | 820 | 164 | 1.40 | 20.7 | 1.7M |
| Village of Union City | MI | – | – | – | – | 10k |
| Coldwater Board of Public Util | Municipal | 310 | 19 | 0.94 | 15.6 | 6.4k |
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
- St. Joseph 22 h
- Hillsdale 19 h
- Kalamazoo 16 h
- Branch (this county) 15 h
- Calhoun 13 h
- Steuben, IN 6.1 h
- LaGrange, IN 5.6 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 30,687 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 →