Power outage history
Washington County Oregon
4.0hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
25th most of 32 in Oregon 39% 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 Washington'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 8.8 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Washington, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 13, 2024 | No storm report | 36,672 | 14% | 5.1 d | 3.9 d | 1.7M |
| Apr 7, 2017 | No storm report | 69,448 | 26% | 2.3 d | 32 h | 986k |
| Feb 14, 2021 | No storm report | 29,747 | 11% | 3.2 d | 2.6 d | 664k |
| Dec 27, 2022 | No storm report | 40,396 | 15% | 36 h | 26 h | 452k |
| Sep 7, 2020 | No storm report | 18,956 | 7% | 43 h | 41 h | 314k |
| Dec 17, 2025 | No storm report | 26,557 | 10% | 30 h | 27 h | 258k |
| Sep 9, 2022 | No storm report | 9,802 | 4% | 37 h | 45 h | 241k |
| Jan 13, 2021 | Flooding | 18,527 | 7% | 20 h | 19 h | 203k |
| Feb 24, 2025 | No storm report | 11,893 | 4% | 24 h | 23 h | 175k |
| Feb 12, 2021 | No storm report | 5,774 | 2% | 27 h | 27 h | 105k |
| Jan 18, 2024 | No storm report | 6,230 | 2% | 25 h | 28 h | 102k |
| Jan 10, 2017 | No storm report | 9,099 | 3% | 16 h | 16 h | 87k |
| Apr 11, 2022 | No storm report | 9,109 | 3% | 13 h | 14 h | 85k |
| Oct 15, 2016 | No storm report | 10,944 | 4% | 11 h | 13 h | 63k |
| Mar 17, 2015 | No storm report | 3,468 | 1% | 14 h | – | 45k |
| Jan 5, 2019 | No storm report | 8,863 | 3% | 9.0 h | 11 h | 43k |
| Apr 4, 2022 | No storm report | 7,313 | 3% | 6.8 h | 8.2 h | 38k |
| Apr 21, 2024 | No storm report | 4,625 | 2% | 8.5 h | – | 35k |
| Mar 1, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 6,565 | 2% | 6.8 h | 4.0 h | 30k |
| Sep 22, 2016 | No storm report | 3,422 | 1% | 8.2 h | – | 27k |
| Mar 15, 2015 | No storm report | 7,472 | 3% | 4.0 h | 6.5 h | 26k |
| Sep 10, 2020 | No storm report | 5,547 | 2% | 4.8 h | 15 h | 25k |
| Jan 9, 2024 | No storm report | 6,712 | 3% | 4.2 h | 4.8 h | 25k |
| Dec 10, 2022 | No storm report | 4,120 | 2% | 7.2 h | – | 24k |
| Dec 11, 2021 | No storm report | 7,328 | 3% | 6.2 h | 7.0 h | 24k |
| Jun 21, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 10,553 | 4% | 4.5 h | 4.5 h | 24k |
| Jul 26, 2022 | No storm report | 4,407 | 2% | 5.2 h | – | 23k |
| Oct 19, 2019 | No storm report | 6,776 | 3% | 3.5 h | 3.2 h | 22k |
| Jun 3, 2021 | No storm report | 4,034 | 2% | 6.0 h | – | 21k |
| Jun 6, 2016 | No storm report | 7,270 | 3% | 3.2 h | 7.0 h | 20k |
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 Washington from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 96%
- Flooding 4.0%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Washington
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Oregon territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portland General Electric Co | Investor Owned | 273 | 103 | 0.89 | 18.8 | 840k |
| West Oregon Electric Coop Inc | OR | – | – | – | – | 48k |
| City of Forest Grove | Municipal | 51 | – | 0.39 | 10.7 | 10k |
| Bonneville 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.
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 268,603 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 →