Power outage history
Oakland County Michigan
16hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
37th most of 83 in Michigan 2.4× 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 Oakland'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 41 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Oakland, 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 11, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 159,871 | 25% | 5.7 d | 48 min | 10M |
| Feb 22, 2023 | Ice storm | 142,457 | 22% | 6.9 d | 5.0 d | 9.8M |
| Jul 19, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 97,824 | 15% | 4.6 d | 2.2 d | 4.2M |
| Jul 24, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 102,102 | 16% | 3.0 d | 9.5 h | 3.8M |
| Mar 3, 2023 | Winter storm | 106,479 | 16% | 2.6 d | 43 h | 3.5M |
| Jul 7, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 75,254 | 12% | 3.3 d | 3.0 d | 3.1M |
| Apr 15, 2018 | Winter storm | 70,985 | 11% | 3.7 d | 3.6 d | 3.0M |
| Aug 27, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 104,826 | 16% | 2.4 d | 2.0 d | 2.9M |
| Sep 22, 2021 | No storm report | 49,937 | 8% | 2.9 d | 2.2 d | 1.9M |
| Aug 31, 2022 | No storm report | 90,015 | 14% | 2.3 d | 2.1 d | 1.9M |
| Aug 24, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 54,618 | 8% | 3.1 d | 2.1 d | 1.8M |
| May 4, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 55,198 | 9% | 2.0 d | 46 h | 1.3M |
| Sep 7, 2021 | Windstorm | 61,288 | 9% | 25 h | 23 h | 1.1M |
| Jun 19, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 25,922 | 4% | 2.8 d | 2.5 d | 1.1M |
| Nov 15, 2020 | Windstorm | 52,675 | 8% | 30 h | 1.0 h | 1.1M |
| Jan 12, 2024 | Winter storm | 33,075 | 5% | 41 h | 42 h | 819k |
| Dec 11, 2021 | Windstorm | 36,269 | 6% | 32 h | 40 h | 693k |
| Jun 27, 2015 | No storm report | 30,350 | 5% | 31 h | 30 h | 665k |
| Jul 20, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 27,783 | 4% | 30 h | 32 h | 565k |
| Jul 20, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 30,837 | 5% | 26 h | 30 h | 529k |
| Jun 25, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 23,375 | 4% | 29 h | 34 h | 526k |
| Jul 26, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 16,893 | 3% | 36 h | 28 h | 485k |
| Feb 19, 2016 | Windstorm | 32,497 | 5% | 24 h | 9.5 h | 475k |
| Aug 24, 2021 | No storm report | 26,383 | 4% | 21 h | 30 h | 388k |
| Mar 25, 2023 | No storm report | 30,657 | 5% | 24 h | 25 h | 376k |
| Jun 21, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 39,812 | 6% | 20 h | 22 h | 373k |
| Jul 28, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 17,138 | 3% | 36 h | 25 h | 367k |
| Nov 5, 2022 | No storm report | 14,636 | 2% | 27 h | 36 h | 334k |
| Mar 1, 2018 | Winter storm | 20,500 | 3% | 22 h | 19 h | 329k |
| Jul 10, 2020 | No storm report | 19,079 | 3% | 27 h | 37 h | 322k |
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 Oakland from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Thunderstorms 53%
- Ice storm 16%
- No storm on record 13%
- Winter storm 13%
- Windstorm 5.1%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Oakland
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 |
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
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 646,293 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 →