Power outage history
Placer County California
9.6hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
28th most of 56 in California 1.5× 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 Placer'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 21 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Placer, 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 | Windstorm | 33,310 | 18% | 4.1 d | 48 h | 1.8M |
| Feb 4, 2024 | Winter storm | 55,153 | 29% | 3.1 d | 39 h | 1.2M |
| Dec 27, 2021 | Winter storm | 10,189 | 5% | 3.7 d | 3.2 d | 812k |
| Dec 31, 2021 | Winter storm | 7,370 | 4% | 7.0 d | 2.6 d | 743k |
| Oct 25, 2020 | Windstorm | 17,195 | 9% | 2.1 d | 48 min | 523k |
| Oct 10, 2019 | Wildfire | 35,336 | 19% | 29 h | 28 h | 505k |
| Feb 27, 2023 | Winter storm | 6,264 | 3% | 4.2 d | 2.9 d | 385k |
| Oct 9, 2019 | Windstorm | 35,146 | 19% | 11 h | 15 h | 354k |
| Oct 9, 2019 | No storm report | 47,143 | 25% | 12 h | 6.0 h | 349k |
| Feb 20, 2024 | Winter storm | 9,212 | 5% | 35 h | 2.8 h | 305k |
| Oct 23, 2019 | Wildfire | 14,639 | 8% | 26 h | 23 h | 292k |
| Sep 13, 2022 | Wildfire | 4,554 | 2% | 5.0 d | – | 284k |
| Dec 13, 2021 | Winter storm | 11,001 | 6% | 46 h | 46 h | 194k |
| Sep 8, 2020 | Windstorm | 5,042 | 3% | 38 h | 3.5 h | 177k |
| Mar 2, 2024 | Winter storm | 7,271 | 4% | 28 h | 17 h | 164k |
| Mar 16, 2020 | Winter storm | 3,995 | 2% | 43 h | – | 129k |
| Aug 11, 2024 | Wildfire | 19,471 | 10% | 11 h | 9.8 h | 120k |
| Jan 26, 2021 | Winter storm | 10,390 | 6% | 20 h | 16 h | 114k |
| Jun 29, 2025 | No storm report | 20,493 | 11% | 5.2 h | 4.0 h | 90k |
| Sep 27, 2020 | Wildfire | 4,561 | 2% | 20 h | – | 79k |
| Oct 14, 2018 | No storm report | 4,000 | 2% | 21 h | – | 74k |
| Mar 1, 2024 | Winter storm | 4,621 | 2% | 22 h | – | 71k |
| Jan 8, 2023 | Windstorm | 4,953 | 3% | 16 h | – | 53k |
| Oct 8, 2021 | Wildfire | 12,440 | 7% | 5.2 h | 4.8 h | 51k |
| Dec 24, 2025 | Winter storm | 5,526 | 3% | 13 h | 11 h | 48k |
| Sep 10, 2021 | Wildfire | 6,920 | 4% | 9.0 h | 9.5 h | 47k |
| Sep 25, 2019 | No storm report | 12,194 | 7% | 11 h | 11 h | 42k |
| Dec 26, 2025 | Winter storm | 4,877 | 3% | 7.5 h | – | 36k |
| Dec 31, 2022 | Winter storm | 3,186 | 2% | 12 h | – | 36k |
| Apr 1, 2025 | Winter storm | 3,680 | 2% | 9.2 h | – | 34k |
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 Placer from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Winter storm 44%
- Windstorm 29%
- Wildfire 15%
- No storm on record 12%
- Heat 0.8%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Placer
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 |
| Sacramento Municipal Util Dist | Political Subdivision | 50 | 50 | 0.87 | 18.9 | 601k |
| Truckee Donner P U D | CA | 1,024 | – | 2.53 | 16.1 | 85k |
| City of Roseville | Municipal | 13 | 10 | 0.10 | 21.3 | 65k |
| Liberty Utilities | Investor Owned | 614 | 435 | 3.09 | 27.6 | 45k |
| 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
- Nevada 45 h
- El Dorado 37 h
- Yuba 16 h
- Placer (this county) 9.6 h
- Douglas, NV 8.2 h
- Sutter 4.6 h
- Washoe, NV 4.2 h
- Sacramento 3.9 h
- Carson City, NV 3.1 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 187,525 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 →