Power outage history
Sacramento County California
3.9hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
46th most of 56 in California 41% 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 Sacramento'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 14 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Sacramento, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 7, 2023 | Windstorm | 348,829 | 56% | 2.9 d | 30 h | 5.8M |
| Jan 26, 2021 | Windstorm | 156,263 | 25% | 48 h | 23 h | 2.2M |
| Feb 4, 2024 | Windstorm | 207,107 | 33% | 2.0 d | 22 h | 2.2M |
| Dec 31, 2022 | Flooding | 175,559 | 28% | 2.2 d | 22 h | 1.8M |
| Jan 18, 2017 | Windstorm | 62,843 | 10% | 20 h | 17 h | 402k |
| Jan 6, 2019 | Flooding | 73,382 | 12% | 20 h | 13 h | 346k |
| Oct 27, 2019 | Windstorm | 23,615 | 4% | 6.5 h | 8.2 h | 84k |
| Jan 22, 2017 | Windstorm | 15,032 | 2% | 5.5 h | 2.8 h | 51k |
| Nov 26, 2019 | No storm report | 21,756 | 3% | 3.8 h | 5.2 h | 47k |
| Dec 13, 2021 | Windstorm | 20,819 | 3% | 4.2 h | 2.8 h | 45k |
| Jun 6, 2015 | No storm report | 17,080 | 3% | 2.8 h | 1.5 h | 43k |
| Jun 28, 2019 | No storm report | 18,710 | 3% | 2.0 h | 2.0 h | 37k |
| Mar 5, 2016 | No storm report | 16,885 | 3% | 2.8 h | 11 h | 34k |
| Feb 17, 2017 | Windstorm | 21,619 | 3% | 3.2 h | 8.2 h | 33k |
| Jan 3, 2017 | No storm report | 19,457 | 3% | 3.2 h | 1.0 h | 30k |
| May 20, 2017 | No storm report | 14,957 | 2% | 2.0 h | 1.5 h | 30k |
| Oct 15, 2019 | No storm report | 18,896 | 3% | 1.5 h | 1.2 h | 28k |
| Apr 26, 2017 | No storm report | 18,752 | 3% | 1.5 h | 30 min | 28k |
| Jul 29, 2022 | No storm report | 16,398 | 3% | 1.8 h | 2.0 h | 26k |
| Nov 25, 2019 | No storm report | 16,470 | 3% | 1.8 h | 48 min | 26k |
| Aug 27, 2016 | No storm report | 18,947 | 3% | 1.2 h | 1.2 h | 24k |
| Jan 14, 2023 | Flooding | 20,101 | 3% | 1.2 h | 2.5 h | 22k |
| Jul 22, 2018 | No storm report | 17,065 | 3% | 1.2 h | 30 min | 21k |
| Feb 6, 2015 | No storm report | 18,561 | 3% | 3.5 h | 48 min | 20k |
| Sep 2, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 16,730 | 3% | 1.8 h | 3.0 h | 20k |
| Nov 2, 2020 | No storm report | 18,512 | 3% | 1.0 h | 30 min | 18k |
| Jun 3, 2018 | No storm report | 14,796 | 2% | 1.5 h | 1.2 h | 18k |
| Oct 16, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 14,326 | 2% | 1.2 h | 1.8 h | 18k |
| May 12, 2017 | No storm report | 16,479 | 3% | 1.0 h | 30 min | 16k |
| Sep 5, 2022 | Heat | 16,205 | 3% | 1.0 h | 30 min | 16k |
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 Sacramento from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Windstorm 77%
- Flooding 16%
- No storm on record 6.5%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Sacramento
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 |
| 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
- Amador 52 h
- El Dorado 37 h
- Placer 9.6 h
- Yolo 7.1 h
- Solano 6.7 h
- Sutter 4.6 h
- Contra Costa 4.6 h
- San Joaquin 4.0 h
- Sacramento (this county) 3.9 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 625,566 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 →