Power Out Map
– 0% of Portsmouth out 0 customers out in Virginia

Power outage history

Portsmouth City Virginia

5.0hours

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

105th most of 123 in Virginia 23% below the national median

Worst outage on record Hurricane Isaias · Aug 4, 2020 34% of customers out · 90% back in 43 hours
Hours without power, average customer per year 5.0h / yr State average 8.7 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 1.6 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 2.8days Hurricane Matthew, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 72% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2020 15 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 43,205 ORNL customer model · 8 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 Portsmouth'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

2020 was the worst well-recorded year, at 15 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Portsmouth, hours without power per customer

PortsmouthUS median countyVirginia average
0 5 10 15 20 2.2 ’15 9.9 ’16 2.1 ’17 9.7 ’18 3.5 ’19 15 ’20 2.1 ’21 2.4 ’22 2.0 ’23 1.9 ’24 3.6 ’25 VA 8.7 US 6.6

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 4, 2020 Hurricane Isaias 14,872 34% 2.5 d 43 h 421k
Oct 12, 2018 Hurricane Michael 10,626 25% 2.0 d 35 h 296k
Oct 8, 2016 Hurricane Matthew 8,525 20% 2.8 d 39 h 279k
Apr 13, 2020 Windstorm 11,769 27% 31 h 24 h 133k
Jan 9, 2024 No storm report 3,772 9% 20 h 17 h 31k
May 2, 2019 No storm report 17,687 41% 2.5 h 2.2 h 26k
Sep 22, 2015 No storm report 13,261 31% 3.0 h 2.2 h 22k
Sep 3, 2016 Hurricane Hermine 2,049 5% 14 h – 19k
Sep 30, 2022 Flooding 3,932 9% 14 h 1.5 h 19k
Jul 19, 2016 Flooding 3,575 8% 7.8 h 7.8 h 16k
Sep 16, 2025 Windstorm 3,646 8% 14 h 12 h 15k
Sep 10, 2015 No storm report 6,032 14% 5.2 h 3.2 h 12k

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 +2h 90% by +12h

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 Portsmouth from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.

  • Tropical storm 56%
  • No storm on record 28%
  • Windstorm 13%
  • Flooding 2.0%
  • Winter storm 0.6%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Portsmouth

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

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 Virginia

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All Virginia 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 43,205 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 →