Power outage history
Bell County Texas
8.1hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
141st most of 240 in Texas 1.2× 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 Bell's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2021 was the worst well-recorded year, at 28 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Bell, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 14, 2021 | Winter storm | 53,031 | 31% | 6.5 d | 4.3 d | 3.9M |
| May 22, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 62,146 | 36% | 25 h | 35 h | 1.1M |
| Feb 1, 2023 | Ice storm | 24,735 | 14% | 4.4 d | 2.4 d | 1.0M |
| May 24, 2024 | Tornadoes | 25,977 | 15% | 2.6 d | 2.2 d | 737k |
| Oct 24, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 16,241 | 9% | 24 h | 24 h | 169k |
| Feb 11, 2021 | Ice storm | 5,926 | 3% | 39 h | 42 h | 147k |
| Sep 28, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 19,339 | 11% | 12 h | 9.5 h | 121k |
| May 26, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 10,282 | 6% | 23 h | 21 h | 116k |
| May 28, 2024 | No storm report | 8,897 | 5% | 16 h | 27 h | 61k |
| Sep 24, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 10,871 | 6% | 12 h | 11 h | 59k |
| Oct 28, 2021 | No storm report | 8,912 | 5% | 13 h | 19 h | 59k |
| Mar 4, 2025 | No storm report | 6,035 | 4% | 18 h | 25 h | 56k |
| Apr 13, 2019 | No storm report | 4,989 | 3% | 17 h | – | 53k |
| Jun 24, 2019 | No storm report | 8,689 | 5% | 12 h | 15 h | 42k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | No storm report | 6,054 | 4% | 15 h | 8.5 h | 42k |
| Apr 28, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 10,712 | 6% | 9.0 h | 12 h | 38k |
| Apr 29, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 5,893 | 3% | 11 h | 17 h | 33k |
| Sep 2, 2020 | Heat | 4,590 | 3% | 12 h | – | 31k |
| Aug 5, 2020 | No storm report | 15,512 | 9% | 3.0 h | 2.0 h | 30k |
| Jun 15, 2025 | No storm report | 5,402 | 3% | 9.0 h | 7.0 h | 30k |
| Aug 17, 2021 | No storm report | 2,435 | 1% | 12 h | – | 28k |
| Sep 30, 2021 | No storm report | 7,173 | 4% | 4.0 h | 3.8 h | 23k |
| Jun 16, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 4,921 | 3% | 6.8 h | – | 21k |
| May 24, 2022 | No storm report | 3,117 | 2% | 7.0 h | – | 17k |
| Oct 21, 2019 | No storm report | 5,865 | 3% | 3.5 h | 8.2 h | 16k |
| May 3, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 3,386 | 2% | 6.0 h | – | 16k |
| Jun 19, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 4,929 | 3% | 5.0 h | – | 15k |
| Dec 29, 2019 | No storm report | 6,137 | 4% | 2.2 h | 1.0 h | 13k |
| May 16, 2024 | Flooding | 5,212 | 3% | 3.0 h | 9.8 h | 13k |
| May 12, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 5,216 | 3% | 4.5 h | 11 h | 13k |
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 Bell from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Winter storm 46%
- Thunderstorms 21%
- Ice storm 14%
- No storm on record 9.8%
- Tornadoes 8.7%
- Heat 0.7%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Bell
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Texas territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pedernales Electric Coop, Inc | Cooperative | 90 | 78 | 1.16 | 12.8 | 421k |
| Heart of Texas Electric Coop | Cooperative | 204 | 134 | 1.83 | 11.9 | 18k |
| Bartlett Electric Coop, Inc | Cooperative | 213 | 165 | 1.46 | 15.2 | 12k |
| Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC | Investor Owned | 232 | 67 | 1.55 | – | – |
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 171,225 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 →