Power outage history
Contra Costa County California
4.6hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
40th most of 56 in California 31% below 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 Contra Costa's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2023 was the worst well-recorded year, at 7.8 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Contra Costa, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 26, 2019 | Wildfire | 70,267 | 14% | 2.8 d | 41 h | 2.1M |
| Mar 14, 2023 | Windstorm | 80,988 | 17% | 33 h | 28 h | 934k |
| Feb 4, 2024 | Windstorm | 41,219 | 8% | 26 h | 23 h | 634k |
| Oct 25, 2020 | Windstorm | 18,389 | 4% | 41 h | 39 h | 576k |
| Mar 21, 2023 | Windstorm | 48,236 | 10% | 29 h | 24 h | 442k |
| Oct 9, 2019 | Wildfire | 37,249 | 8% | 10 h | 20 h | 339k |
| Sep 19, 2021 | No storm report | 20,039 | 4% | 17 h | 20 h | 180k |
| Oct 10, 2019 | Wildfire | 31,800 | 7% | 8.0 h | 20 h | 111k |
| Jan 4, 2023 | No storm report | 22,013 | 5% | 8.5 h | 18 h | 95k |
| Oct 24, 2021 | No storm report | 16,244 | 3% | 11 h | 18 h | 79k |
| Aug 16, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 17,450 | 4% | 8.8 h | 17 h | 78k |
| Sep 10, 2021 | No storm report | 13,472 | 3% | 8.8 h | 11 h | 75k |
| Dec 14, 2024 | No storm report | 19,277 | 4% | 9.5 h | 3.5 h | 71k |
| Sep 5, 2022 | Heat | 14,866 | 3% | 7.5 h | 5.2 h | 66k |
| Jan 8, 2023 | No storm report | 10,054 | 2% | 8.0 h | 8.8 h | 57k |
| Jul 2, 2023 | No storm report | 13,360 | 3% | 6.0 h | 3.8 h | 54k |
| Oct 25, 2021 | No storm report | 10,184 | 2% | 7.5 h | 17 h | 53k |
| Jan 26, 2021 | Windstorm | 10,458 | 2% | 7.2 h | 18 h | 47k |
| Aug 14, 2023 | No storm report | 8,027 | 2% | 6.0 h | 9.2 h | 41k |
| May 5, 2025 | No storm report | 11,336 | 2% | 4.2 h | 4.8 h | 38k |
| Feb 9, 2020 | Windstorm | 17,126 | 4% | 7.2 h | 7.5 h | 36k |
| Dec 31, 2022 | No storm report | 14,424 | 3% | 3.5 h | 15 h | 32k |
| Nov 21, 2018 | No storm report | 20,688 | 4% | 1.8 h | 1.2 h | 32k |
| Jun 10, 2019 | Heat | 11,211 | 2% | 4.0 h | 6.5 h | 32k |
| Jul 2, 2024 | No storm report | 8,873 | 2% | 8.2 h | 7.0 h | 31k |
| Jul 5, 2024 | No storm report | 9,077 | 2% | 4.0 h | 7.5 h | 30k |
| May 4, 2024 | No storm report | 9,986 | 2% | 3.5 h | 2.5 h | 29k |
| Oct 28, 2023 | No storm report | 9,879 | 2% | 3.2 h | 3.8 h | 27k |
| Nov 26, 2019 | Windstorm | 11,957 | 2% | 3.2 h | 4.5 h | 26k |
| Sep 24, 2025 | No storm report | 9,374 | 2% | 3.0 h | 6.5 h | 25k |
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 Contra Costa from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Windstorm 38%
- Wildfire 34%
- No storm on record 24%
- Heat 2.2%
- Thunderstorms 1.1%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Contra Costa
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 |
| 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
- Solano 6.7 h
- Contra Costa (this county) 4.6 h
- San Joaquin 4.0 h
- Sacramento 3.9 h
- Alameda 3.6 h
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 486,945 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 →