Power outage history
Olmsted County Minnesota
1.2hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
49th most of 54 in Minnesota 82% 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 Olmsted'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 2.5 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Olmsted, 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 | Thunderstorms | 7,414 | 10% | 44 h | 42 h | 123k |
| May 21, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 7,643 | 10% | 11 h | 7.8 h | 31k |
| Jun 17, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 3,498 | 5% | 13 h | – | 29k |
| Jul 23, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 4,862 | 6% | 9.2 h | 11 h | 20k |
| Jul 28, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 5,045 | 7% | 5.5 h | 4.2 h | 15k |
| Mar 19, 2021 | No storm report | 4,409 | 6% | 2.8 h | 2.8 h | 8.3k |
| Apr 3, 2024 | Winter storm | 3,635 | 5% | 2.2 h | – | 8.2k |
| Aug 6, 2022 | No storm report | 2,566 | 3% | 2.5 h | – | 5.3k |
| Jun 28, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 3,292 | 4% | 1.8 h | – | 5.3k |
| Apr 1, 2023 | Winter storm | 1,581 | 2% | 3.8 h | – | 5.2k |
| Jun 21, 2024 | No storm report | 2,236 | 3% | 2.2 h | – | 5.0k |
| Oct 24, 2022 | No storm report | 2,697 | 4% | 1.8 h | – | 4.7k |
| Dec 16, 2023 | No storm report | 1,416 | 2% | 3.0 h | – | 4.2k |
| Mar 25, 2020 | No storm report | 1,688 | 2% | 2.8 h | – | 4.0k |
| May 11, 2023 | No storm report | 1,611 | 2% | 2.2 h | – | 3.6k |
| May 10, 2020 | No storm report | 1,200 | 2% | 3.0 h | – | 3.5k |
| May 22, 2020 | No storm report | 2,697 | 4% | 1.2 h | – | 3.4k |
| Jul 26, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 2,237 | 3% | 3.2 h | – | 3.3k |
| Oct 8, 2023 | No storm report | 839 | 1% | 4.0 h | – | 3.2k |
| May 28, 2022 | No storm report | 1,821 | 2% | 1.8 h | – | 3.1k |
| May 5, 2021 | No storm report | 1,002 | 1% | 3.0 h | – | 3.0k |
| Jun 5, 2025 | No storm report | 6,014 | 8% | 30 min | 48 min | 3.0k |
| Mar 26, 2025 | No storm report | 5,913 | 8% | 30 min | 4.8 h | 3.0k |
| Aug 12, 2024 | No storm report | 2,097 | 3% | 1.5 h | – | 2.9k |
| Jul 4, 2022 | No storm report | 2,283 | 3% | 1.2 h | – | 2.9k |
| May 20, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 1,885 | 2% | 1.5 h | – | 2.8k |
| May 6, 2021 | No storm report | 1,563 | 2% | 1.8 h | – | 2.7k |
| May 30, 2022 | Windstorm | 2,219 | 3% | 2.2 h | – | 2.7k |
| May 25, 2022 | No storm report | 2,095 | 3% | 1.2 h | – | 2.6k |
| Aug 27, 2021 | No storm report | 4,069 | 5% | 48 min | 30 min | 2.4k |
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 Olmsted from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Thunderstorms 60%
- No storm on record 35%
- Winter storm 4.0%
- Heat 0.7%
- Windstorm 0.7%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Olmsted
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Minnesota territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northern States Power Co - Minnesota | Investor Owned | 226 | 115 | 1.38 | 17.1 | 1.2M |
| Goodhue County Coop Elec Assn | MN | 111 | 28 | 1.08 | 12.7 | 89k |
| Rochester Public Utilities | Municipal | 33 | 24 | 0.55 | 18.6 | 56k |
| People's Cooperative Services | Cooperative | 99 | 45 | 1.23 | 17.2 | 22k |
| Freeborn Mower Electric Cooperative | Cooperative | 172 | 56 | 1.58 | 15.3 | 18k |
| MiEnergy Cooperative | Cooperative | 213 | 79 | 1.08 | 16.9 | 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 76,519 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 →