Power Out Map
– 0% of Alameda out 0 customers out in California

Power outage history

Alameda County California

3.6hours

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

47th most of 56 in California 46% below the national median

Worst outage on record Oct 27, 2019 12% of customers out · 90% back in 33 hours
Hours without power, average customer per year 3.6h / yr State average 6.2 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 0.5 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 29hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 2.1days Mar 21, 2023, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 81% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2019 5.6 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 751,616 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 Alameda'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

2019 was the worst well-recorded year, at 5.6 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Alameda, hours without power per customer

AlamedaUS median countyCalifornia average
0 2 4 6 8 ’17 0.9 ’18 5.6 ’19 3.8 ’20 3.1 ’21 2.9 ’22 5.6 ’23 3.8 ’24 2.7 ’25 US 6.6 CA 6.2

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
Oct 26, 2019 Wildfire 88,608 12% 46 h 33 h 2.5M
Mar 21, 2023 Windstorm 57,857 8% 2.1 d 47 h 1.2M
Oct 25, 2020 Windstorm 22,392 3% 44 h 45 h 604k
Feb 9, 2020 Windstorm 55,472 7% 18 h 11 h 492k
Feb 19, 2023 No storm report 55,724 7% 26 h 25 h 488k
Jan 21, 2022 No storm report 34,852 5% 18 h 23 h 379k
Mar 14, 2023 Windstorm 33,951 5% 21 h 29 h 309k
Oct 9, 2019 Wildfire 31,906 4% 9.8 h 12 h 292k
Oct 10, 2019 Wildfire 32,428 4% 6.8 h 5.2 h 168k
Feb 4, 2024 Windstorm 28,382 4% 10 h 5.2 h 152k
Aug 16, 2020 Thunderstorms 19,413 3% 9.2 h 9.0 h 115k
Jan 26, 2021 Windstorm 21,281 3% 7.8 h 10 h 108k

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 +22h 90% by +34h

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

  • Windstorm 39%
  • Wildfire 38%
  • No storm on record 19%
  • Thunderstorms 2.6%
  • Heat 1.3%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Alameda

As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole California territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.

Utility Type Outage min / yr Excl. major storms Outages / yr Residential ¢/kWh Customers
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. Investor Owned 273 208 1.63 37.5 5.1M
Alameda Municipal Power Municipal 9 9 0.05 24.0 32k
Port of Oakland CA – – – – –
WAPA-- Western Area Power Administration Federal – – – – –

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 California

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All California 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 751,616 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 →