Power Out Map
– 0% of Polk out 0 customers out in Tennessee

Power outage history

Polk County Tennessee

10hours

without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025

9th most of 73 in Tennessee 1.6× the national median

Worst outage on record Mar 3, 2023 38% of customers out · 90% back in 47 hours
Hours without power, average customer per year 10h / yr State average 5.8 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 5.1 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 3hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 2.4days Mar 3, 2023, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 29% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2023 18 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 9,762 ORNL customer model · 7 well-covered years

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 Polk's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.

20152016201720182019202020212022202320242025
0%100% of customers out

Year by year

Hours in the dark, per customer

2023 was the worst well-recorded year, at 18 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Polk, hours without power per customer

PolkUS median countyTennessee average
0 5 10 15 20 25 ’15 ’16 ’17 ’18 3.4 ’19 10 ’20 7.8 ’21 11 ’22 18 ’23 13 ’24 8.3 ’25 US 6.6 TN 5.8

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
Mar 3, 2023 No storm report 3,708 38% 2.4 d 47 h 71k
May 9, 2024 Thunderstorms 2,642 27% 45 h 34 h 44k
Apr 12, 2020 Thunderstorms 2,693 28% 47 h 43 h 41k
Jul 30, 2024 Thunderstorms 4,533 46% 26 h 14 h 34k
Oct 13, 2023 No storm report 6,675 68% 4.0 h 2.8 h 26k
Jan 3, 2022 No storm report 858 9% 43 h 35 h 23k
Mar 4, 2025 No storm report 1,998 20% 28 h 17 h 20k
Mar 25, 2023 Thunderstorms 1,838 19% 14 h 7.0 h 14k
Apr 5, 2022 No storm report 1,450 15% 13 h 8.8 h 12k
Jun 25, 2023 Thunderstorms 1,869 19% 8.0 h 4.2 h 8.3k
Aug 22, 2025 No storm report 1,437 15% 5.2 h 2.5 h 7.5k
Mar 25, 2021 No storm report 1,318 14% 11 h 7.2 h 7.1k

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.

0% 25% 50% 75% 100% peak+24h+48h+72h+96h half back by +6h 90% by +14h

When it happens

The outage clock

Customer-hours out by month (rings, January innermost) and local hour, 2018–2025.

00061218 Jan inside

What was happening

Weather behind the outages

Each outage is matched to NOAA storm reports for Polk from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.

  • No storm on record 71%
  • Thunderstorms 26%
  • Tropical storm 2.1%
  • Flooding 1.0%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Polk

As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Tennessee territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.

Utility Type Outage min / yr Excl. major storms Outages / yr Residential ¢/kWh Customers
Volunteer Electric Coop Cooperative 685 436 5.80 13.1 105k
Tri-State Electric Member Corp Cooperative – – – 14.9 2.8k

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

Across Tennessee

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All Tennessee 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 9,762 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 →