Power outage history
Ward County North Dakota
0.5hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
12th most of 13 in North Dakota 92% 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 Ward's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2022 was the worst well-recorded year, at 43 min for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Ward, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 28, 2015 | Windstorm | 1,220 | 2% | 17 h | – | 14k |
| Jul 10, 2017 | No storm report | 12,637 | 25% | 1.5 h | 1.0 h | 13k |
| Oct 5, 2024 | Windstorm | 2,127 | 4% | 9.0 h | – | 10k |
| Jan 31, 2023 | No storm report | 2,740 | 5% | 3.2 h | 2.5 h | 8.9k |
| Jan 14, 2021 | Windstorm | 1,986 | 4% | 8.0 h | – | 8.4k |
| Apr 5, 2022 | No storm report | 7,477 | 15% | 1.0 h | 12 min | 7.5k |
| Sep 10, 2021 | No storm report | 7,447 | 14% | 1.8 h | 1.5 h | 6.5k |
| Apr 24, 2022 | Winter storm | 1,182 | 2% | 7.2 h | – | 6.0k |
| Dec 28, 2025 | No storm report | 2,806 | 5% | 2.2 h | 48 min | 5.9k |
| Sep 21, 2019 | No storm report | 3,983 | 8% | 1.8 h | 1.5 h | 5.6k |
| Nov 5, 2020 | No storm report | 7,227 | 14% | 48 min | 30 min | 5.4k |
| Jul 10, 2025 | No storm report | 2,362 | 5% | 2.8 h | – | 5.3k |
| Nov 24, 2023 | No storm report | 3,422 | 7% | 1.8 h | 1.0 h | 5.0k |
| Aug 12, 2018 | No storm report | 2,229 | 4% | 1.8 h | – | 3.7k |
| Jan 8, 2016 | No storm report | 2,727 | 5% | 1.2 h | 1.0 h | 3.4k |
| Oct 16, 2022 | No storm report | 2,707 | 5% | 1.2 h | 48 min | 3.3k |
| Jan 13, 2021 | No storm report | 2,578 | 5% | 1.2 h | 1.2 h | 3.2k |
| Jul 25, 2024 | No storm report | 2,063 | 4% | 1.5 h | – | 3.1k |
| Nov 2, 2015 | No storm report | 2,990 | 6% | 1.0 h | 48 min | 3.0k |
| Jul 27, 2016 | No storm report | 1,628 | 3% | 1.8 h | – | 2.8k |
| Mar 11, 2020 | No storm report | 2,745 | 5% | 1.0 h | 30 min | 2.7k |
| Sep 25, 2017 | No storm report | 1,430 | 3% | 2.0 h | – | 2.6k |
| Nov 20, 2020 | No storm report | 1,263 | 2% | 1.8 h | – | 2.2k |
| May 12, 2020 | No storm report | 1,223 | 2% | 1.8 h | – | 2.1k |
| Apr 12, 2025 | No storm report | 1,704 | 3% | 1.2 h | – | 2.1k |
| Mar 15, 2016 | No storm report | 1,213 | 2% | 1.8 h | – | 2.1k |
| Jul 13, 2018 | No storm report | 610 | 1% | 2.8 h | – | 1.7k |
| Apr 23, 2020 | No storm report | 950 | 2% | 1.2 h | – | 1.2k |
| Aug 16, 2023 | No storm report | 867 | 2% | 1.2 h | – | 1.1k |
| Mar 29, 2017 | No storm report | 2,123 | 4% | 30 min | – | 1.1k |
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 Ward from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 77%
- Windstorm 17%
- Winter storm 5.5%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Ward
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole North Dakota 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 | 88 | 57 | 0.55 | 13.5 | 83k |
| Montana-Dakota Utilities Co | Investor Owned | 95 | 65 | 0.81 | 11.1 | 80k |
| Otter Tail Power Co | Investor Owned | 575 | 132 | 2.03 | 11.1 | 45k |
| Verendrye Electric Coop Inc | Cooperative | 42 | 42 | 0.65 | 11.2 | 14k |
| Mountrail-Williams Elec Coop | Cooperative | 116 | 116 | 1.16 | 7.3 | 11k |
| McLean Electric Coop, Inc | Cooperative | – | – | – | 14.6 | 3.7k |
| Burke-Divide Electric Coop Inc | Cooperative | – | – | – | 8.6 | 1.8k |
| WAPA-- Western Area Power Administration | Federal | – | – | – | – | – |
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
- McLean 3.3 h
- Ward (this county) 0.5 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 51,522 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 →