Power outage history
Portage County Wisconsin
5.8hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
17th most of 72 in Wisconsin close to 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 Portage's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2019 was the worst well-recorded year, at 26 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Portage, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 12, 2017 | Flooding | 18,682 | 69% | 3.1 d | 2.3 d | 621k |
| Jul 20, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 17,096 | 63% | 5.4 d | 14 h | 568k |
| Jun 15, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 7,813 | 29% | 28 h | 21 h | 74k |
| Dec 15, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 4,953 | 18% | 2.1 d | 13 h | 67k |
| Feb 24, 2019 | Winter storm | 6,214 | 23% | 26 h | 15 h | 61k |
| Mar 30, 2025 | Ice storm | 4,781 | 18% | 29 h | 18 h | 57k |
| Mar 7, 2017 | Windstorm | 2,597 | 10% | 44 h | 24 h | 37k |
| Feb 28, 2016 | No storm report | 7,852 | 29% | 4.2 h | 1.2 h | 33k |
| Jul 28, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 3,175 | 12% | 21 h | 16 h | 19k |
| Mar 16, 2015 | No storm report | 2,852 | 11% | 6.5 h | 6.5 h | 17k |
| May 22, 2019 | Windstorm | 4,595 | 17% | 9.0 h | 7.5 h | 17k |
| Mar 23, 2025 | Winter storm | 2,604 | 10% | 10 h | 7.8 h | 12k |
| Apr 11, 2022 | No storm report | 6,145 | 23% | 2.5 h | 9.8 h | 11k |
| Sep 21, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 3,906 | 14% | 8.2 h | 3.5 h | 11k |
| Sep 1, 2020 | No storm report | 3,346 | 12% | 5.0 h | 5.0 h | 11k |
| Aug 5, 2017 | No storm report | 3,373 | 12% | 5.5 h | 5.5 h | 10k |
| Apr 21, 2025 | No storm report | 4,843 | 18% | 1.5 h | 1.5 h | 7.3k |
| Jul 19, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 1,637 | 6% | 6.8 h | 17 h | 7.2k |
| Sep 22, 2024 | No storm report | 634 | 2% | 11 h | – | 7.1k |
| Oct 19, 2022 | No storm report | 5,892 | 22% | 3.5 h | 30 min | 6.5k |
| Mar 10, 2021 | No storm report | 3,440 | 13% | 2.2 h | 2.2 h | 6.3k |
| Jun 10, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 1,649 | 6% | 7.5 h | 8.2 h | 6.2k |
| Jul 19, 2017 | Windstorm | 4,214 | 16% | 4.0 h | 1.8 h | 5.9k |
| Aug 7, 2019 | No storm report | 3,765 | 14% | 6.5 h | 48 min | 5.7k |
| Sep 20, 2022 | No storm report | 5,714 | 21% | 1.0 h | 48 min | 5.7k |
| Jul 13, 2015 | No storm report | 970 | 4% | 10 h | – | 5.5k |
| May 28, 2025 | No storm report | 1,873 | 7% | 5.5 h | 5.2 h | 5.5k |
| Dec 15, 2022 | Winter storm | 630 | 2% | 14 h | – | 5.3k |
| Aug 27, 2021 | Flooding | 1,500 | 6% | 6.5 h | 6.8 h | 5.0k |
| Apr 11, 2024 | No storm report | 2,823 | 10% | 1.8 h | 1.8 h | 4.9k |
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 Portage from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Thunderstorms 68%
- No storm on record 15%
- Winter storm 8.6%
- Ice storm 5.1%
- Windstorm 1.9%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Portage
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Wisconsin territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wisconsin Power & Light Co | Investor Owned | 96 | 75 | 0.79 | 18.5 | 441k |
| Wisconsin Public Service Corp | Investor Owned | 630 | 107 | 1.44 | 17.2 | 416k |
| Central Wisconsin Elec Coop | WI | 3,484 | – | 2.86 | 17.8 | 60k |
| Adams-Columbia Electric Coop | Cooperative | 108 | 66 | 0.87 | 19.0 | 36k |
| Wisconsin Rapids W W & L Comm | Municipal | 50 | – | 0.50 | 13.6 | 12k |
| Consolidated Water Power Co | Investor Owned | – | – | – | 11.4 | 70 |
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.
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 27,174 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 →