The average American experiences about 2 hours of power outage annually, excluding major weather events, according to the Energy Information Administration. That number tripled when events like winter storms, wildfires, and hurricanes factor in.
Average power outage duration varies significantly between states, from 1.5 hours in landlocked South Dakota to nearly 30 hours in the coastal state of North Carolina, according to the most recent EIA data. On average, states prone to natural disasters and extreme weather see significantly longer disruptions.
For most people, outages are a mild inconvenience. In extreme cases, however, they can lead to dangerous consequences. Without power, people are more susceptible to extreme heat or cold depending on the season, as well as food spoilage, water filtration systems becoming disabled, and medications that require refrigeration becoming unstable and unusable.
Outages are also expensive. The Department of Energy estimates power outages cost U.S. businesses roughly $150 billion per year.
In addition to weather, the U.S. power grid is also vulnerable to physical attacks and cyberattacks by bad actors outside and within U.S. borders. Attacks on U.S. power grids rose to an all-time high in 2022, with physical threats to electric infrastructure climbing 77% to 163, according to the DOE. Power grids are becoming a popular target of domestic extremists, who strike transformers and power lines in potentially coordinated attacks.
Should a catastrophic event occur, there's essentially no such thing as spare parts for the country's power grid. Security experts say that a fairly low-tech coordinated attack against a few integral nodes of the country's power grid is all it would take to cause widespread long-term outages from coast to coast, resulting in hundreds of thousands, potentially millions, of deaths.
Stacker cited data from the Energy Information Administration to identify the 50 biggest power outages in 2022. Outages are ranked by the number of customers affected. The outage must have lasted at least 1 hour to qualify for the ranking. All data is considered preliminary by the EIA.
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1 / 50- Customers affected: 51,000 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- State impacted: Ohio
- Duration: 31 hours, 34 minutes
- Cause: severe weather/transmission interruption
Menna // Shutterstock
2 / 50- Customers affected: 51,289 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- States impacted: North Carolina, South Carolina
- Duration: 20 hours, 40 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
CHAINFOTO24 // Shutterstock
3 / 50- Customers affected: 52,172 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- State impacted: Texas
- Duration: 16 hours, 22 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
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4 / 50- Customers affected: 54,110 people
- Estimated power lost: 386 megawatts
- States impacted: Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia
- Duration: 5 hours, 35 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
ojoel // Shutterstock
5 / 50- Customers affected: 60,000 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- State impacted: Missouri
- Duration: 3 hours, 0 minutes
- Cause: severe weather/distribution interruption
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6 / 50- Customers affected: 60,424 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- State impacted: South Carolina
- Duration: 37 hours, 0 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
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7 / 50- Customers affected: 61,113 people
- Estimated power lost: 436 megawatts
- States impacted: Georgia, Alabama
- Duration: 18 hours, 51 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
iSam iSmile // Shutterstock
8 / 50- Customers affected: 62,000 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- States impacted: Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska
- Duration: 4 hours, 0 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
oo3asy60lfoo // Shutterstock
9 / 50- Customers affected: 62,464 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- State impacted: Ohio
- Duration: 5 hours, 30 minutes
- Cause: system operations
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10 / 50- Customers affected: 66,519 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- State impacted: North Carolina
- Duration: 7 hours, 15 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
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11 / 50- Customers affected: 67,754 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- States impacted: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont
- Duration: 3 hours, 29 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
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12 / 50- Customers affected: 70,000 people
- Estimated power lost: 60 megawatts
- State impacted: Michigan
- Duration: 34 hours, 31 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
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13 / 50- Customers affected: 71,000 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- State impacted: Michigan
- Duration: 37 hours, 53 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
oo3asy60lfoo // Shutterstock
14 / 50- Customers affected: 73,717 people
- Estimated power lost: 3140 megawatts
- State impacted: Oregon
- Duration: 46 hours, 45 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
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15 / 50- Customers affected: 74,638 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- States impacted: North Carolina, South Carolina
- Duration: 4 hours, 0 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
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16 / 50- Customers affected: 75,500 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- State impacted: Maryland
- Duration: 8 hours, 0 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
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17 / 50- Customers affected: 76,388 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- States impacted: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont
- Duration: 4 hours, 30 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
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18 / 50- Customers affected: 77,908 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- States impacted: North Carolina, South Carolina
- Duration: 3 hours, 36 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
Rosemarie Mosteller // Shutterstock
19 / 50- Customers affected: 87,500 people
- Estimated power lost: 190 megawatts
- State impacted: Maryland
- Duration: 6 hours, 30 minutes
- Cause: Transmission interruption
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20 / 50- Customers affected: 91,056 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- States impacted: North Carolina, South Carolina
- Duration: 7 Hours, 17 Minutes
- Cause: severe weather
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21 / 50- Customers affected: 91,264 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- State impacted: Michigan
- Duration: 3 hours, 30 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
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22 / 50- Customers affected: 93,750 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- State impacted: Michigan
- Duration: 14 hours, 45 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
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23 / 50- Customers affected: 100,000 people
- Estimated power lost: 14000 megawatts
- States impacted: Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Indiana
- Duration: 24 hours, 0 minutes
- Cause: severe weather/transmission interruption
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24 / 50- Customers affected: 100,000 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- State impacted: Virginia
- Duration: 9 hours, 4 minutes
- Cause: severe weather/distribution interruption
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25 / 50- Customers affected: 104,700 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- States impacted: Ohio, Kentucky
- Duration: 13 hours, 15 minutes
- Cause: severe weather/transmission interruption
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26 / 50- Customers affected: 105,000 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- State impacted: Minnesota
- Duration: 4 hours, 42 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
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27 / 50- Customers affected: 108,900 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- States impacted: North Carolina, South Carolina
- Duration: 14 hours, 43 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
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28 / 50- Customers affected: 108,930 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- State impacted: South Carolina
- Duration: 4 hours, 23 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
Brandon Bell // Getty Images
29 / 50- Customers affected: 109,865 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- State impacted: Texas
- Duration: 12 hours, 5 minutes
- Cause: system operations
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30 / 50- Customers affected: 113,000 people
- Estimated power lost: 113 megawatts
- States impacted: Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire
- Duration: 33 hours, 15 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
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31 / 50- Customers affected: 116,937 people
- Estimated power lost: 1000 megawatts
- State impacted: Florida
- Duration: 45 hours, 20 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
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32 / 50- Customers affected: 130,000 people
- Estimated power lost: 960 megawatts
- State impacted: North Carolina
- Duration: 9 hours, 35 minutes
- Cause: system operations
Brandon Bell // Getty Images
33 / 50- Customers affected: 140,464 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- State impacted: Texas
- Duration: 24 hours, 4 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
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34 / 50- Customers affected: 142,000 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- States impacted: North Carolina, South Carolina
- Duration: 31 hours, 0 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
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35 / 50- Customers affected: 150,000 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- States impacted: West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky
- Duration: 51 hours, 45 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
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36 / 50- Customers affected: 150,000 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- State impacted: Texas
- Duration: 48 hours, 15 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
Scott Alan Ritchie // Shutterstock
37 / 50- Customers affected: 154,100 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- States impacted: North Carolina, South Carolina
- Duration: 24 hours, 6 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
Suprachai Akkho // Shutterstock
38 / 50- Customers affected: 158,450 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- State impacted: Michigan
- Duration: 66 hours, 0 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
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39 / 50- Customers affected: 160,000 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- State impacted: Florida
- Duration: 26 hours, 47 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
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40 / 50- Customers affected: 161,000 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- State impacted: California
- Duration: 11 hours, 0 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
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41 / 50- Customers affected: 162,551 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- States impacted: Ohio, Kentucky
- Duration: 24 hours, 15 minutes
- Cause: severe weather/transmission interruption
JonGado // Shutterstock
42 / 50- Customers affected: 170,000 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- State impacted: Texas
- Duration: 53 hours, 0 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
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43 / 50- Customers affected: 190,000 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- State impacted: Texas
- Duration: 40 hours, 0 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
oo3asy60lfoo // Shutterstock
44 / 50- Customers affected: 197,740 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- State impacted: Michigan
- Duration: 66 hours, 0 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
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45 / 50- Customers affected: 214,000 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- State impacted: Washington
- Duration: 60 hours, 55 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
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46 / 50- Customers affected: 230,000 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- State impacted: Washington
- Duration: 60 hours, 30 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
Chad Robertson Media // Shutterstock
47 / 50- Customers affected: 255,000 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- State impacted: Tennessee
- Duration: 106 hours, 0 minutes
- Cause: severe weather/transmission interruption
Logan Cyrus // Getty Images
48 / 50- Customers affected: 295,000 people
- Estimated power lost: 1000 megawatts
- States impacted: North Carolina, South Carolina
- Duration: 11 hours, 0 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
Scott Alan Ritchie // Shutterstock
49 / 50- Customers affected: 676,000 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- State impacted: Florida
- Duration: 120 hours, 53 minutes
- Cause: severe weather
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50 / 50- Customers affected: 911,888 people
- Estimated power lost: unknown
- States impacted: Missouri, Kansas
- Duration: 5 hours, 0 minutes
- Cause: severe weather/transmission interruption
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