Power outage history
Orange County Virginia
10.0hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
68th most of 123 in Virginia 1.5× 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 Orange's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2022 was the worst well-recorded year, at 27 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Orange, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 3, 2022 | Winter storm | 6,325 | 34% | 6.7 d | 3.1 d | 383k |
| Dec 16, 2020 | Winter storm | 7,552 | 41% | 2.0 d | 30 h | 162k |
| Apr 6, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 17,235 | 93% | 26 h | 16 h | 126k |
| Mar 2, 2018 | Windstorm | 3,283 | 18% | 3.5 d | 19 h | 114k |
| May 14, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 6,272 | 34% | 44 h | 27 h | 106k |
| Nov 15, 2018 | Winter storm | 2,805 | 15% | 33 h | 5.0 h | 51k |
| Apr 12, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 4,541 | 25% | 15 h | 5.2 h | 33k |
| Jul 12, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 3,421 | 19% | 22 h | 8.5 h | 32k |
| Jun 16, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 1,793 | 10% | 47 h | 45 h | 29k |
| Feb 7, 2018 | Winter storm | 6,350 | 34% | 9.5 h | 48 min | 24k |
| Aug 15, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 1,464 | 8% | 22 h | 22 h | 22k |
| Jul 21, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 2,055 | 11% | 9.2 h | 9.0 h | 18k |
| Mar 1, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 4,259 | 23% | 11 h | 8.2 h | 15k |
| Jul 18, 2021 | No storm report | 4,050 | 22% | 3.5 h | 3.2 h | 13k |
| Jun 20, 2015 | Tropical Storm Bill | 1,076 | 6% | 25 h | 31 h | 13k |
| Apr 1, 2023 | No storm report | 1,299 | 7% | 18 h | 14 h | 11k |
| Oct 31, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 1,804 | 10% | 20 h | 16 h | 10k |
| Jul 22, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 1,693 | 9% | 7.0 h | 5.2 h | 7.5k |
| Jan 12, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 1,522 | 8% | 13 h | 6.8 h | 7.4k |
| Feb 16, 2025 | No storm report | 1,284 | 7% | 19 h | 25 h | 7.1k |
| Apr 19, 2019 | Flooding | 1,966 | 11% | 5.0 h | 2.0 h | 7.1k |
| Aug 24, 2025 | No storm report | 1,216 | 7% | 8.8 h | 16 h | 6.6k |
| Jun 29, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 1,352 | 7% | 8.8 h | 9.0 h | 6.1k |
| Aug 28, 2021 | Flooding | 1,987 | 11% | 3.2 h | 1.8 h | 5.7k |
| Jan 23, 2025 | No storm report | 1,084 | 6% | 6.5 h | 3.8 h | 5.6k |
| Nov 1, 2018 | No storm report | 5,136 | 28% | 1.2 h | 1.0 h | 5.6k |
| Feb 25, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 2,157 | 12% | 5.5 h | 4.8 h | 5.1k |
| Jun 14, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 1,752 | 9% | 5.5 h | 4.2 h | 5.0k |
| Jun 2, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 1,338 | 7% | 6.8 h | 4.2 h | 4.7k |
| Apr 28, 2023 | No storm report | 1,314 | 7% | 3.5 h | 3.5 h | 4.3k |
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 Orange from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Winter storm 49%
- Thunderstorms 23%
- No storm on record 17%
- Windstorm 8.8%
- Flooding 1.9%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Orange
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 |
| Rappahannock Electric Coop | Cooperative | 428 | 220 | 2.50 | 15.5 | 173k |
| Central Virginia Electric Coop | Cooperative | 796 | 501 | 5.03 | 16.2 | 35k |
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 18,484 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 →