Power outage history
Lancaster County South Carolina
5.5hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
29th most of 46 in South Carolina 16% 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 Lancaster's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2022 was the worst well-recorded year, at 12 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Lancaster, 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 | 17,052 | 33% | 2.6 d | 2.1 d | 352k |
| Jan 16, 2022 | Ice storm | 14,374 | 28% | 2.1 d | 30 h | 257k |
| Apr 19, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 10,435 | 20% | 30 h | 22 h | 105k |
| Sep 15, 2018 | Hurricane Florence | 3,722 | 7% | 45 h | 33 h | 92k |
| Jun 3, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 6,269 | 12% | 25 h | 23 h | 86k |
| May 22, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 4,794 | 9% | 27 h | 25 h | 73k |
| Jun 17, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 7,775 | 15% | 21 h | 17 h | 55k |
| Jul 25, 2017 | No storm report | 4,560 | 9% | 21 h | 8.2 h | 51k |
| Apr 15, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 4,363 | 8% | 28 h | 28 h | 49k |
| Jun 9, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 2,791 | 5% | 28 h | 26 h | 43k |
| Dec 24, 2022 | No storm report | 8,636 | 17% | 8.5 h | 7.2 h | 38k |
| Apr 13, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 3,334 | 6% | 31 h | 32 h | 35k |
| Jan 3, 2022 | Windstorm | 2,863 | 5% | 29 h | 28 h | 32k |
| Sep 11, 2017 | No storm report | 2,812 | 5% | 28 h | 38 h | 31k |
| Jun 2, 2018 | No storm report | 3,756 | 7% | 16 h | 15 h | 28k |
| Jun 16, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 5,355 | 10% | 15 h | 15 h | 28k |
| Sep 13, 2017 | No storm report | 11,923 | 23% | 2.8 h | 2.5 h | 23k |
| Feb 6, 2024 | No storm report | 1,461 | 3% | 15 h | – | 22k |
| Apr 22, 2025 | No storm report | 3,029 | 6% | 19 h | 16 h | 21k |
| Jun 1, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 1,736 | 3% | 21 h | – | 19k |
| Jul 6, 2025 | Tropical Storm Chantal | 3,592 | 7% | 5.2 h | 2.2 h | 18k |
| Feb 24, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 1,230 | 2% | 20 h | – | 15k |
| Jul 11, 2021 | No storm report | 3,887 | 7% | 3.5 h | 9.8 h | 14k |
| Jun 23, 2017 | No storm report | 1,549 | 3% | 9.5 h | – | 13k |
| Feb 22, 2019 | No storm report | 2,017 | 4% | 8.5 h | – | 13k |
| Jun 7, 2025 | No storm report | 1,832 | 4% | 9.0 h | – | 12k |
| Aug 1, 2020 | No storm report | 1,576 | 3% | 7.5 h | – | 12k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | Windstorm | 2,453 | 5% | 12 h | – | 12k |
| Jan 9, 2024 | Windstorm | 2,919 | 6% | 9.5 h | 4.2 h | 12k |
| Jul 14, 2021 | No storm report | 12,378 | 24% | 2.2 h | 2.2 h | 11k |
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 Lancaster from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Thunderstorms 28%
- No storm on record 28%
- Tropical storm 26%
- Ice storm 14%
- Windstorm 3.9%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Lancaster
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 |
| Lynches River Elec Coop, Inc | Cooperative | 202 | 129 | 2.00 | 16.3 | 22k |
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
- Chester 8.5 h
- Fairfield 8.3 h
- Chesterfield 8.2 h
- Union, NC 6.5 h
- Lancaster (this county) 5.5 h
- Mecklenburg, NC 5.4 h
- Kershaw 3.2 h
- York 3.1 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 52,274 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 →