Power outage history
Mercer County Ohio
2.9hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
75th most of 88 in Ohio 56% 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 Mercer's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2019 was the worst well-recorded year, at 4.7 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Mercer, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 1, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 3,875 | 21% | 31 h | 10 h | 36k |
| Apr 2, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 6,108 | 32% | 20 h | 7.2 h | 32k |
| Feb 24, 2019 | Windstorm | 8,809 | 47% | 9.2 h | 7.8 h | 28k |
| May 27, 2019 | Tornadoes | 1,952 | 10% | 14 h | 12 h | 24k |
| Nov 15, 2020 | Windstorm | 4,228 | 22% | 8.8 h | 4.2 h | 21k |
| May 7, 2024 | Tornadoes | 2,518 | 13% | 19 h | 12 h | 14k |
| Mar 1, 2017 | Windstorm | 3,443 | 18% | 6.8 h | 2.8 h | 12k |
| Jan 18, 2020 | No storm report | 6,047 | 32% | 2.8 h | 30 min | 8.1k |
| Jun 18, 2021 | Tornadoes | 4,516 | 24% | 6.8 h | 2.0 h | 7.8k |
| Apr 12, 2020 | No storm report | 2,074 | 11% | 3.8 h | 3.5 h | 7.4k |
| Nov 16, 2024 | No storm report | 2,657 | 14% | 3.8 h | 2.0 h | 7.3k |
| Jul 29, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 2,052 | 11% | 5.8 h | 3.8 h | 6.3k |
| Mar 19, 2025 | No storm report | 4,658 | 25% | 1.8 h | 1.0 h | 6.0k |
| Jul 2, 2019 | No storm report | 2,528 | 13% | 5.0 h | 5.0 h | 5.8k |
| Dec 3, 2022 | No storm report | 2,338 | 12% | 3.5 h | 1.8 h | 5.7k |
| Apr 29, 2020 | No storm report | 1,909 | 10% | 2.8 h | 6.2 h | 5.2k |
| Aug 11, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 3,142 | 17% | 2.2 h | 2.2 h | 5.1k |
| Dec 18, 2025 | No storm report | 1,923 | 10% | 4.2 h | 4.8 h | 5.1k |
| Jul 5, 2019 | No storm report | 1,898 | 10% | 2.5 h | 30 min | 4.7k |
| Jun 29, 2020 | No storm report | 3,127 | 17% | 2.5 h | 2.2 h | 4.7k |
| Oct 24, 2015 | No storm report | 3,017 | 16% | 1.8 h | 1.2 h | 4.5k |
| Jan 30, 2019 | Winter storm | 1,843 | 10% | 4.5 h | 3.5 h | 4.2k |
| Mar 3, 2023 | Flooding | 376 | 2% | 9.5 h | – | 3.6k |
| Aug 21, 2018 | No storm report | 3,098 | 16% | 1.2 h | 48 min | 3.5k |
| Aug 3, 2015 | No storm report | 1,915 | 10% | 1.8 h | 5.0 h | 3.4k |
| Mar 1, 2023 | No storm report | 1,054 | 6% | 3.0 h | 3.0 h | 3.2k |
| Apr 17, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 2,293 | 12% | 1.2 h | 1.2 h | 2.6k |
| Jun 12, 2021 | No storm report | 1,129 | 6% | 3.0 h | 4.0 h | 2.5k |
| Oct 20, 2018 | No storm report | 1,289 | 7% | 2.0 h | 1.8 h | 2.5k |
| Oct 20, 2020 | No storm report | 885 | 5% | 3.2 h | – | 2.5k |
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 Mercer from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 44%
- Thunderstorms 25%
- Windstorm 15%
- Tornadoes 13%
- Winter storm 1.2%
- Flooding 1.1%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Mercer
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Ohio territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dayton Power & Light Co | Investor Owned | 168 | 97 | 0.99 | 16.1 | 469k |
| Darke Rural Electric Coop, Inc | OH | 411 | 390 | – | 12.6 | 89k |
| Pioneer Rural Elec Coop, Inc | Cooperative | 129 | 129 | 1.50 | 16.4 | 16k |
| Midwest Electric, Inc | Cooperative | 255 | 91 | 1.88 | 15.8 | 11k |
| City of Celina | Municipal | – | – | – | 10.0 | 7.7k |
| City of Mendon | OH | – | – | – | – | 4.3k |
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 18,878 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 →