Power outage history
Richland County South Carolina
4.5hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
33rd most of 46 in South Carolina 32% 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 Richland'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 20 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Richland, 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 | 106,649 | 47% | 5.9 d | 23 h | 4.1M |
| Oct 8, 2016 | Hurricane Matthew | 26,429 | 12% | 2.0 d | 48 h | 447k |
| Oct 4, 2015 | Flooding | 11,688 | 5% | 39 h | 25 h | 247k |
| Jun 22, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 33,840 | 15% | 25 h | 13 h | 237k |
| Jun 25, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 43,801 | 19% | 12 h | 11 h | 227k |
| Oct 8, 2016 | Hurricane Matthew | 33,158 | 15% | 9.0 h | 15 h | 206k |
| Sep 11, 2017 | Windstorm | 17,547 | 8% | 29 h | 23 h | 204k |
| Jun 7, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 23,109 | 10% | 17 h | 16 h | 172k |
| Jan 3, 2022 | Windstorm | 22,896 | 10% | 17 h | 10 h | 151k |
| Apr 15, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 20,399 | 9% | 13 h | 13 h | 109k |
| Oct 11, 2018 | Hurricane Michael | 21,358 | 9% | 12 h | 9.5 h | 109k |
| Jun 20, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 22,546 | 10% | 12 h | 11 h | 77k |
| Jan 16, 2022 | Ice storm | 16,157 | 7% | 9.5 h | 9.8 h | 65k |
| Apr 13, 2020 | Tornadoes | 17,199 | 8% | 7.0 h | 9.0 h | 52k |
| Sep 30, 2022 | Hurricane Ian | 17,159 | 8% | 7.5 h | 4.5 h | 42k |
| Mar 3, 2017 | No storm report | 6,122 | 3% | 6.2 h | 5.8 h | 38k |
| Jul 27, 2021 | No storm report | 17,754 | 8% | 2.8 h | 1.8 h | 35k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | Windstorm | 11,558 | 5% | 5.8 h | 7.2 h | 35k |
| Aug 3, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 7,504 | 3% | 8.2 h | 11 h | 32k |
| Aug 1, 2016 | Flooding | 8,177 | 4% | 7.5 h | 8.2 h | 32k |
| Aug 5, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 10,769 | 5% | 5.5 h | 7.8 h | 30k |
| Jan 29, 2015 | No storm report | 9,593 | 4% | 3.0 h | 2.8 h | 29k |
| Feb 7, 2020 | No storm report | 9,868 | 4% | 4.5 h | 7.8 h | 27k |
| Aug 6, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 7,262 | 3% | 5.8 h | 13 h | 25k |
| Feb 24, 2016 | Windstorm | 7,408 | 3% | 5.2 h | 8.2 h | 22k |
| Jun 24, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 7,136 | 3% | 4.8 h | 15 h | 21k |
| Jun 16, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 10,494 | 5% | 4.2 h | 6.5 h | 19k |
| Aug 21, 2025 | No storm report | 10,964 | 5% | 2.0 h | 4.8 h | 19k |
| Jul 26, 2021 | No storm report | 5,401 | 2% | 3.5 h | 2.2 h | 17k |
| Jul 21, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 6,149 | 3% | 3.2 h | 8.2 h | 16k |
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 Richland from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 72%
- Thunderstorms 17%
- No storm on record 4.4%
- Windstorm 3.6%
- Ice storm 1.1%
- Tornadoes 1.0%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Richland
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 |
| Mid-Carolina Electric Coop Inc | Cooperative | 267 | 90 | 2.21 | 16.8 | 57k |
| Fairfield Electric Coop, Inc | Cooperative | 139 | 131 | 1.50 | 15.6 | 33k |
| Tri-County Electric Coop, Inc (SC) | Cooperative | 265 | 112 | 2.45 | 19.9 | 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.
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 227,559 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 →