Power outage history
Bedford County Virginia
14hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
57th most of 123 in Virginia 2.1× 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 Bedford's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2025 was the worst well-recorded year, at 31 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Bedford, 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 12, 2025 | Winter storm | 17,311 | 36% | 5.3 d | 2.3 d | 679k |
| Jan 6, 2025 | Winter storm | 11,384 | 24% | 2.9 d | 48 h | 446k |
| Mar 1, 2018 | Windstorm | 12,288 | 26% | 2.7 d | 40 h | 347k |
| Feb 13, 2021 | Winter storm | 5,490 | 11% | 4.1 d | 3.7 d | 299k |
| Jan 3, 2022 | Winter storm | 13,735 | 29% | 2.5 d | 2.1 d | 218k |
| Feb 20, 2019 | Winter storm | 11,147 | 23% | 2.2 d | 25 h | 173k |
| Sep 27, 2024 | Tornadoes | 15,420 | 32% | 2.2 d | 21 h | 164k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | Windstorm | 5,467 | 11% | 2.6 d | 2.3 d | 130k |
| May 4, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 8,231 | 17% | 30 h | 27 h | 110k |
| Oct 11, 2018 | Hurricane Michael | 9,480 | 20% | 36 h | 25 h | 103k |
| Sep 30, 2022 | Hurricane Ian | 5,620 | 12% | 40 h | 27 h | 92k |
| Jul 8, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 9,957 | 21% | 21 h | 17 h | 77k |
| May 26, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 2,883 | 6% | 24 h | 23 h | 41k |
| Dec 29, 2025 | No storm report | 2,364 | 5% | 32 h | – | 40k |
| Oct 31, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 2,610 | 5% | 18 h | 13 h | 36k |
| Apr 9, 2020 | No storm report | 3,090 | 6% | 27 h | 23 h | 36k |
| Nov 20, 2024 | No storm report | 2,473 | 5% | 20 h | 15 h | 35k |
| Sep 16, 2025 | No storm report | 19,478 | 41% | 2.8 h | 1.5 h | 33k |
| May 13, 2025 | No storm report | 4,829 | 10% | 7.2 h | 5.2 h | 33k |
| Aug 2, 2024 | No storm report | 4,990 | 10% | 21 h | 6.2 h | 32k |
| Jul 2, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 5,260 | 11% | 8.5 h | 6.0 h | 30k |
| Dec 9, 2018 | Winter storm | 5,344 | 11% | 20 h | 2.8 h | 29k |
| Aug 8, 2024 | Hurricane Debby | 1,543 | 3% | 27 h | – | 27k |
| Feb 16, 2016 | Winter storm | 2,817 | 6% | 21 h | 26 h | 27k |
| Nov 1, 2020 | No storm report | 1,691 | 4% | 22 h | – | 25k |
| Aug 29, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 2,913 | 6% | 16 h | 13 h | 23k |
| Jun 17, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 2,366 | 5% | 27 h | – | 23k |
| Jul 29, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 1,218 | 3% | 31 h | – | 22k |
| Mar 19, 2023 | No storm report | 1,900 | 4% | 13 h | – | 22k |
| May 1, 2025 | No storm report | 954 | 2% | 23 h | – | 22k |
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 Bedford from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Winter storm 45%
- No storm on record 23%
- Windstorm 12%
- Thunderstorms 10%
- Tropical storm 5.7%
- Tornadoes 4.3%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Bedford
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Virginia territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virginia Electric & Power Co | Investor Owned | 307 | 144 | 1.78 | 15.2 | 2.4M |
| Appalachian Power Co | Investor Owned | 1,116 | 328 | 2.36 | 17.2 | 468k |
| Southside Electric Coop, Inc | Cooperative | 2,127 | 324 | 4.45 | 15.5 | 57k |
| Town of Bedford | Municipal | 274 | 137 | 1.33 | 14.2 | 5.9k |
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
- Pittsylvania 24 h
- Franklin 23 h
- Botetourt 22 h
- Roanoke 20 h
- Amherst 19 h
- Bedford (this county) 14 h
- Campbell 14 h
- Rockbridge 12 h
- Lynchburg 6.2 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 47,929 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 →