Power outage history
Orangeburg County South Carolina
3.0hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
44th most of 46 in South Carolina 55% 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 Orangeburg's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2020 was the worst well-recorded year, at 6.6 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Orangeburg, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 8, 2016 | Hurricane Matthew | 10,879 | 19% | 4.1 d | 4.0 d | 493k |
| Sep 27, 2024 | Hurricane Helene | 9,653 | 16% | 3.6 d | 25 h | 294k |
| Apr 13, 2020 | Tornadoes | 14,062 | 24% | 43 h | 13 h | 118k |
| Oct 8, 2016 | Hurricane Matthew | 12,550 | 21% | 10 h | 13 h | 54k |
| Oct 11, 2018 | Hurricane Michael | 5,128 | 9% | 14 h | 8.2 h | 33k |
| Sep 30, 2022 | Hurricane Ian | 7,137 | 12% | 9.8 h | 4.8 h | 27k |
| Jan 3, 2022 | Windstorm | 3,416 | 6% | 13 h | 9.8 h | 27k |
| May 6, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 5,590 | 10% | 16 h | 14 h | 25k |
| Aug 30, 2023 | Hurricane Idalia | 5,755 | 10% | 13 h | 11 h | 24k |
| Sep 11, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 3,466 | 6% | 9.5 h | 9.5 h | 22k |
| Apr 19, 2019 | Tornadoes | 3,720 | 6% | 9.0 h | 7.0 h | 22k |
| Sep 16, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 863 | 1% | 25 h | – | 22k |
| Mar 13, 2020 | No storm report | 1,708 | 3% | 12 h | – | 20k |
| May 17, 2020 | No storm report | 1,471 | 3% | 11 h | – | 16k |
| Oct 18, 2020 | No storm report | 1,946 | 3% | 9.5 h | – | 16k |
| Mar 29, 2020 | No storm report | 3,032 | 5% | 9.8 h | 10 h | 14k |
| Jun 20, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 3,240 | 6% | 8.2 h | 7.2 h | 14k |
| Jun 12, 2021 | No storm report | 4,784 | 8% | 3.5 h | 1.2 h | 12k |
| Jun 27, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 3,131 | 5% | 11 h | 8.8 h | 12k |
| Jun 15, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 3,888 | 7% | 4.8 h | 4.8 h | 12k |
| Sep 5, 2019 | Hurricane Dorian | 4,206 | 7% | 5.5 h | 3.0 h | 9.3k |
| Jan 9, 2024 | Windstorm | 2,733 | 5% | 6.2 h | – | 8.9k |
| Jun 4, 2020 | No storm report | 632 | 1% | 14 h | – | 8.8k |
| Jun 11, 2020 | No storm report | 1,604 | 3% | 5.2 h | – | 8.3k |
| Jun 25, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 6,191 | 11% | 5.2 h | 5.2 h | 8.1k |
| May 9, 2016 | No storm report | 7,762 | 13% | 1.2 h | 1.2 h | 7.8k |
| Jan 10, 2024 | Windstorm | 1,536 | 3% | 9.8 h | – | 7.3k |
| Dec 24, 2020 | No storm report | 2,486 | 4% | 4.8 h | – | 7.3k |
| Jul 28, 2020 | No storm report | 3,264 | 6% | 4.8 h | 4.5 h | 6.1k |
| Aug 29, 2025 | No storm report | 3,950 | 7% | 2.2 h | 4.5 h | 5.7k |
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 Orangeburg from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 41%
- No storm on record 27%
- Tornadoes 15%
- Thunderstorms 13%
- Windstorm 4.5%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Orangeburg
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dominion Energy South Carolina, Inc | Investor Owned | 131 | 81 | 1.34 | 16.4 | 713k |
| Aiken Electric Coop Inc | Cooperative | 189 | 119 | – | 17.5 | 51k |
| City of Orangeburg | Municipal | 224 | 183 | 1.83 | 15.2 | 21k |
| Tri-County Electric Coop, Inc (SC) | Cooperative | 265 | 112 | 2.45 | 19.9 | 18k |
| Edisto Electric Coop, Inc | Cooperative | 236 | 236 | – | 19.0 | 16k |
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 58,624 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 →