Power outage history
Mercer County Pennsylvania
7.3hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
29th most of 67 in Pennsylvania 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 Mercer's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2023 was the worst well-recorded year, at 23 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 | 18,186 | 38% | 3.9 d | 2.8 d | 469k |
| Mar 25, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 26,180 | 54% | 4.4 d | 2.2 d | 467k |
| May 21, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 15,053 | 31% | 2.0 d | 37 h | 224k |
| Aug 6, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 6,185 | 13% | 2.2 d | 40 h | 125k |
| May 1, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 8,297 | 17% | 46 h | 28 h | 114k |
| Aug 25, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 5,579 | 12% | 40 h | 34 h | 72k |
| Mar 8, 2017 | No storm report | 5,047 | 10% | 31 h | 25 h | 52k |
| Feb 24, 2019 | Windstorm | 2,848 | 6% | 31 h | 37 h | 41k |
| Jul 13, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 4,811 | 10% | 26 h | 25 h | 40k |
| May 11, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 7,398 | 15% | 8.8 h | 6.8 h | 39k |
| Mar 1, 2018 | No storm report | 5,897 | 12% | 14 h | 11 h | 29k |
| Nov 15, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 2,722 | 6% | 25 h | 32 h | 28k |
| Jul 16, 2021 | Flooding | 6,522 | 13% | 20 h | 7.0 h | 27k |
| Nov 16, 2018 | Winter storm | 4,565 | 9% | 27 h | 27 h | 22k |
| May 28, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 7,732 | 16% | 9.5 h | 2.0 h | 21k |
| Jun 10, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 3,349 | 7% | 17 h | 16 h | 20k |
| Dec 29, 2024 | No storm report | 2,283 | 5% | 20 h | – | 20k |
| Sep 10, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 2,779 | 6% | 16 h | 16 h | 18k |
| Apr 14, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 10,118 | 21% | 10 h | 4.2 h | 18k |
| Apr 12, 2024 | No storm report | 1,109 | 2% | 21 h | – | 17k |
| Jun 18, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 4,024 | 8% | 9.2 h | 8.2 h | 16k |
| Aug 10, 2015 | No storm report | 6,157 | 13% | 4.5 h | 4.0 h | 15k |
| Oct 2, 2016 | No storm report | 19,420 | 40% | 1.0 h | 48 min | 14k |
| Dec 27, 2023 | No storm report | 8,290 | 17% | 3.8 h | 3.5 h | 14k |
| Jan 9, 2024 | No storm report | 2,235 | 5% | 12 h | – | 12k |
| Feb 25, 2022 | Winter storm | 1,461 | 3% | 14 h | – | 12k |
| Mar 2, 2025 | No storm report | 2,304 | 5% | 6.0 h | – | 11k |
| Jan 12, 2020 | No storm report | 1,985 | 4% | 9.5 h | – | 11k |
| Oct 6, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 848 | 2% | 16 h | – | 11k |
| Nov 27, 2019 | No storm report | 4,103 | 8% | 2.5 h | 2.0 h | 10k |
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.
- Thunderstorms 75%
- No storm on record 20%
- Windstorm 2.3%
- Winter storm 1.6%
- Flooding 1.3%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Mercer
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 |
| Central Electric Coop, Inc | Cooperative | – | – | – | 16.9 | 24k |
| Borough of Grove City | PA | – | – | – | – | 20k |
| Northwestern Rural E C A, Inc | Cooperative | – | – | – | 16.1 | 18k |
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
- Venango 12 h
- Crawford 9.9 h
- Trumbull, OH 8.4 h
- Butler 8.1 h
- Mercer (this county) 7.3 h
- Lawrence 4.7 h
- Mahoning, OH 3.4 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 48,402 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 →