Power outage history
Union County North Carolina
6.5hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
64th most of 100 in North Carolina close to 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 Union's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2024 was the worst well-recorded year, at 14 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Union, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 27, 2024 | Hurricane Helene | 25,878 | 40% | 2.5 d | 17 h | 483k |
| Sep 15, 2018 | Hurricane Florence | 6,514 | 10% | 2.6 d | 40 h | 161k |
| Oct 11, 2018 | Hurricane Michael | 20,536 | 31% | 36 h | 20 h | 142k |
| Apr 13, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 11,992 | 18% | 37 h | 35 h | 125k |
| May 22, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 14,693 | 22% | 23 h | 11 h | 91k |
| Jan 9, 2024 | No storm report | 9,525 | 15% | 25 h | 7.2 h | 90k |
| Jan 7, 2017 | Winter storm | 8,958 | 14% | 20 h | 5.0 h | 64k |
| Apr 26, 2019 | No storm report | 6,970 | 11% | 23 h | 21 h | 57k |
| Jan 16, 2022 | Ice storm | 4,297 | 7% | 25 h | 24 h | 50k |
| Feb 24, 2016 | Windstorm | 4,033 | 6% | 21 h | 17 h | 47k |
| Jun 17, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 3,182 | 5% | 13 h | – | 39k |
| Jan 3, 2022 | No storm report | 6,012 | 9% | 15 h | 11 h | 37k |
| Apr 19, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 5,202 | 8% | 17 h | 15 h | 36k |
| Jul 30, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 5,252 | 8% | 20 h | 19 h | 34k |
| Dec 9, 2018 | No storm report | 6,613 | 10% | 15 h | 2.8 h | 34k |
| Jun 22, 2025 | No storm report | 6,273 | 10% | 9.0 h | 7.0 h | 32k |
| Aug 8, 2024 | Hurricane Debby | 5,002 | 8% | 11 h | 6.2 h | 30k |
| May 21, 2016 | No storm report | 16,832 | 26% | 3.2 h | 2.8 h | 28k |
| Jan 8, 2015 | No storm report | 4,438 | 7% | 14 h | 9.8 h | 24k |
| Oct 23, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 3,353 | 5% | 17 h | 7.8 h | 22k |
| Aug 7, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 4,746 | 7% | 7.5 h | 5.8 h | 22k |
| Jul 6, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 4,706 | 7% | 14 h | 13 h | 20k |
| Jun 16, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 4,750 | 7% | 8.0 h | 6.2 h | 20k |
| Jun 7, 2021 | No storm report | 12,750 | 19% | 2.0 h | 48 min | 19k |
| Sep 2, 2022 | No storm report | 3,925 | 6% | 5.0 h | 2.5 h | 19k |
| Mar 23, 2024 | No storm report | 1,457 | 2% | 16 h | – | 18k |
| Jul 5, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 5,602 | 9% | 7.0 h | 5.5 h | 18k |
| Oct 29, 2020 | Hurricane Zeta | 5,834 | 9% | 6.5 h | 5.0 h | 18k |
| Dec 24, 2022 | No storm report | 4,126 | 6% | 8.8 h | 7.5 h | 17k |
| Sep 11, 2017 | No storm report | 2,342 | 4% | 18 h | – | 17k |
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 Union from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 46%
- Tropical storm 33%
- Thunderstorms 18%
- Ice storm 1.9%
- Flooding 0.7%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Union
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole North Carolina territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC | Investor Owned | 216 | 172 | 1.35 | 13.4 | 2.0M |
| Union Electric Membership Corp | Cooperative | 52 | 47 | 0.68 | 13.9 | 87k |
| Pee Dee Electric Member Corp | Cooperative | 285 | 171 | 2.72 | 15.6 | 19k |
| City of Monroe | Municipal | 31 | 18 | 0.52 | 11.7 | 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
- Anson 25 h
- Chesterfield, SC 8.2 h
- Union (this county) 6.5 h
- Stanly 6.2 h
- Lancaster, SC 5.5 h
- Mecklenburg 5.4 h
- Cabarrus 4.1 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 65,408 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 →