Power outage history
Chester County South Carolina
8.5hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
21st most of 46 in South Carolina 1.3× 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 Chester'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 32 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Chester, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 27, 2024 | Hurricane Helene | 12,625 | 61% | 4.1 d | 3.0 d | 541k |
| May 22, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 3,480 | 17% | 45 h | 24 h | 63k |
| Sep 11, 2017 | No storm report | 2,178 | 11% | 2.2 d | 35 h | 51k |
| Jan 16, 2022 | Ice storm | 2,428 | 12% | 34 h | 31 h | 44k |
| Dec 26, 2022 | No storm report | 532 | 3% | 5.3 d | – | 44k |
| Dec 31, 2019 | No storm report | 444 | 2% | 7.0 d | – | 37k |
| Apr 13, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 2,024 | 10% | 33 h | 32 h | 35k |
| Jun 16, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 3,348 | 16% | 20 h | 9.5 h | 23k |
| Jan 3, 2022 | No storm report | 2,184 | 11% | 17 h | 14 h | 17k |
| Apr 15, 2018 | No storm report | 1,398 | 7% | 27 h | 26 h | 16k |
| May 6, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 1,199 | 6% | 15 h | 14 h | 16k |
| Jun 27, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 1,243 | 6% | 16 h | 16 h | 16k |
| Sep 15, 2018 | Hurricane Florence | 1,073 | 5% | 23 h | 10 h | 15k |
| Aug 9, 2024 | Hurricane Debby | 1,965 | 10% | 11 h | 7.8 h | 15k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | No storm report | 1,683 | 8% | 13 h | 5.5 h | 14k |
| May 26, 2025 | No storm report | 2,386 | 12% | 5.8 h | 5.0 h | 12k |
| Jul 30, 2022 | No storm report | 2,361 | 11% | 9.5 h | 5.8 h | 12k |
| Dec 24, 2022 | No storm report | 2,284 | 11% | 8.5 h | 7.2 h | 12k |
| Apr 22, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 2,371 | 12% | 9.2 h | 8.8 h | 11k |
| Jan 9, 2024 | No storm report | 585 | 3% | 30 h | – | 11k |
| Dec 30, 2021 | No storm report | 1,135 | 6% | 9.8 h | 11 h | 9.4k |
| Dec 28, 2016 | No storm report | 2,235 | 11% | 4.0 h | 4.2 h | 8.9k |
| Feb 28, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 2,310 | 11% | 15 h | 7.2 h | 7.4k |
| Mar 25, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 1,242 | 6% | 8.5 h | 6.5 h | 7.2k |
| Jun 9, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 1,229 | 6% | 14 h | 12 h | 7.0k |
| Jun 5, 2018 | No storm report | 1,333 | 6% | 5.2 h | 5.0 h | 7.0k |
| Aug 19, 2021 | No storm report | 696 | 3% | 8.8 h | – | 6.0k |
| Oct 3, 2015 | No storm report | 828 | 4% | 9.8 h | – | 5.8k |
| Jul 28, 2025 | No storm report | 911 | 4% | 5.8 h | – | 5.2k |
| Jun 5, 2016 | No storm report | 725 | 4% | 7.2 h | – | 5.0k |
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 Chester from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 49%
- No storm on record 29%
- Thunderstorms 17%
- Ice storm 3.7%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Chester
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole South Carolina territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC | Investor Owned | 220 | 141 | 1.26 | 13.5 | 582k |
| York Electric Coop Inc | Cooperative | 66 | 61 | 0.51 | 13.7 | 66k |
| Fairfield Electric Coop, Inc | Cooperative | 139 | 131 | 1.50 | 15.6 | 33k |
| Lockhart Power Co | Investor Owned | – | – | – | 14.2 | 5.0k |
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
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 20,548 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 →