Power outage history
Rhea County Tennessee
5.1hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
32nd most of 73 in Tennessee 23% 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 Rhea's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2023 was the worst well-recorded year, at 14 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Rhea, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 7, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 5,943 | 35% | 3.0 d | 2.1 d | 121k |
| Apr 15, 2023 | No storm report | 7,371 | 43% | 5.8 h | 2.0 h | 41k |
| Mar 29, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 3,052 | 18% | 45 h | 41 h | 41k |
| Feb 21, 2025 | No storm report | 7,389 | 43% | 3.2 h | 3.2 h | 24k |
| Jun 21, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 1,706 | 10% | 20 h | 18 h | 18k |
| Feb 2, 2025 | No storm report | 7,403 | 43% | 2.0 h | 1.5 h | 15k |
| Jan 11, 2020 | No storm report | 2,081 | 12% | 16 h | 15 h | 15k |
| Mar 4, 2025 | No storm report | 1,390 | 8% | 16 h | 4.8 h | 14k |
| Jun 12, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 4,426 | 26% | 6.8 h | 4.5 h | 13k |
| Mar 3, 2023 | No storm report | 969 | 6% | 24 h | 25 h | 11k |
| Apr 9, 2020 | No storm report | 1,873 | 11% | 8.5 h | 6.2 h | 8.7k |
| Aug 31, 2021 | Hurricane Ida | 1,374 | 8% | 11 h | 11 h | 8.4k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | No storm report | 1,868 | 11% | 15 h | 13 h | 8.2k |
| Feb 16, 2025 | Windstorm | 951 | 6% | 13 h | 12 h | 6.1k |
| Mar 25, 2023 | No storm report | 1,049 | 6% | 7.0 h | 7.8 h | 5.9k |
| Apr 12, 2024 | No storm report | 675 | 4% | 8.2 h | – | 5.4k |
| Apr 1, 2023 | No storm report | 1,353 | 8% | 5.0 h | 4.2 h | 4.5k |
| Jul 5, 2023 | No storm report | 974 | 6% | 4.5 h | 9.2 h | 4.4k |
| May 8, 2021 | No storm report | 667 | 4% | 6.5 h | – | 4.3k |
| Feb 28, 2021 | No storm report | 1,382 | 8% | 3.2 h | 48 min | 4.3k |
| Dec 10, 2023 | No storm report | 982 | 6% | 5.8 h | 1.5 h | 4.0k |
| Aug 3, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 1,292 | 8% | 4.2 h | 3.5 h | 3.5k |
| May 9, 2024 | No storm report | 1,010 | 6% | 4.2 h | 3.0 h | 3.1k |
| Dec 18, 2022 | No storm report | 1,111 | 6% | 2.5 h | 2.8 h | 2.8k |
| Aug 12, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 1,670 | 10% | 4.0 h | 3.5 h | 2.6k |
| Jun 25, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 1,266 | 7% | 3.2 h | 2.2 h | 2.6k |
| Jun 29, 2023 | No storm report | 994 | 6% | 2.5 h | 2.0 h | 2.5k |
| Mar 12, 2022 | Winter storm | 644 | 4% | 5.8 h | – | 2.5k |
| Aug 15, 2023 | No storm report | 1,129 | 7% | 2.8 h | 2.8 h | 2.4k |
| Jan 15, 2024 | Winter storm | 623 | 4% | 4.2 h | – | 2.3k |
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 Rhea from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 55%
- Thunderstorms 41%
- Tropical storm 1.6%
- Windstorm 1.2%
- Winter storm 1.1%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Rhea
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| City of Chattanooga | Municipal | 194 | 72 | 1.36 | 12.9 | 165k |
| Volunteer Electric Coop | Cooperative | 685 | 436 | 5.80 | 13.1 | 105k |
| Sequachee Valley Electric Coop | Cooperative | 305 | 253 | 2.15 | 13.8 | 33k |
| City of Dayton | Municipal | – | – | – | 12.6 | 9.1k |
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
- Meigs 11 h
- Bledsoe 9.8 h
- Cumberland 9.7 h
- Rhea (this county) 5.1 h
- Roane 3.2 h
- Hamilton 1.8 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 17,177 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 →