Power outage history
Erie County Pennsylvania
4.1hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
52nd most of 67 in Pennsylvania 37% 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 Erie'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 7.8 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Erie, 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 9, 2024 | Windstorm | 25,425 | 15% | 2.3 d | 47 h | 534k |
| Mar 1, 2018 | Winter storm | 20,256 | 12% | 24 h | 20 h | 198k |
| Dec 29, 2015 | No storm report | 11,054 | 7% | 20 h | 21 h | 113k |
| Dec 29, 2024 | Windstorm | 9,694 | 6% | 22 h | 20 h | 101k |
| Feb 24, 2019 | Windstorm | 17,664 | 11% | 15 h | 12 h | 96k |
| Jan 12, 2024 | Windstorm | 8,787 | 5% | 21 h | 22 h | 81k |
| Nov 15, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 8,712 | 5% | 22 h | 26 h | 81k |
| Mar 25, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 8,711 | 5% | 15 h | 12 h | 80k |
| Oct 28, 2015 | Windstorm | 9,450 | 6% | 14 h | 11 h | 60k |
| Aug 18, 2024 | No storm report | 12,627 | 8% | 7.0 h | 6.0 h | 42k |
| Jun 23, 2025 | No storm report | 5,852 | 4% | 8.5 h | 7.2 h | 38k |
| Nov 5, 2017 | Flooding | 6,486 | 4% | 13 h | 21 h | 37k |
| Apr 1, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 9,025 | 5% | 8.0 h | 15 h | 35k |
| Feb 16, 2015 | Winter storm | 5,956 | 4% | 9.8 h | 6.5 h | 34k |
| Jan 11, 2017 | Windstorm | 16,440 | 10% | 3.5 h | 2.5 h | 33k |
| Mar 8, 2017 | No storm report | 4,421 | 3% | 12 h | – | 33k |
| Jun 14, 2021 | No storm report | 16,494 | 10% | 2.8 h | 2.2 h | 30k |
| Sep 4, 2018 | No storm report | 15,626 | 9% | 5.2 h | 1.2 h | 28k |
| Aug 26, 2019 | No storm report | 13,601 | 8% | 2.5 h | 2.2 h | 27k |
| May 20, 2023 | No storm report | 7,545 | 5% | 7.2 h | 6.5 h | 27k |
| Dec 11, 2021 | Windstorm | 4,094 | 2% | 8.0 h | – | 25k |
| Jul 5, 2025 | No storm report | 3,581 | 2% | 9.5 h | – | 25k |
| Oct 26, 2024 | No storm report | 3,055 | 2% | 8.0 h | – | 23k |
| Apr 4, 2018 | Windstorm | 5,675 | 3% | 8.8 h | 4.0 h | 23k |
| Aug 16, 2023 | No storm report | 3,689 | 2% | 6.0 h | – | 22k |
| Aug 9, 2023 | No storm report | 13,465 | 8% | 2.2 h | 2.2 h | 21k |
| Dec 29, 2016 | No storm report | 2,943 | 2% | 7.8 h | – | 21k |
| Apr 22, 2015 | No storm report | 12,673 | 8% | 2.5 h | 1.5 h | 20k |
| Nov 1, 2023 | No storm report | 10,729 | 7% | 4.0 h | 7.2 h | 19k |
| Apr 2, 2023 | No storm report | 9,032 | 5% | 2.2 h | 48 min | 19k |
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 Erie from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 45%
- Windstorm 34%
- Thunderstorms 11%
- Winter storm 9.4%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Erie
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Pennsylvania territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FirstEnergy Pennsylvania Electric Co | Investor Owned | 647 | 217 | 2.02 | 18.8 | 1.8M |
| Warren Electric Coop Inc | PA | – | – | – | – | 44k |
| Northwestern Rural E C A, Inc | Cooperative | – | – | – | 16.1 | 18k |
| Borough of Girard | PA | – | – | – | – | 12k |
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
- Crawford 9.9 h
- Warren 8.4 h
- Ashtabula, OH 8.3 h
- Chautauqua, NY 4.4 h
- Erie (this county) 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 164,700 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 →