Power outage history
San Luis Obispo County California
6.7hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
34th most of 56 in California close to 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 San Luis Obispo's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2024 was the worst well-recorded year, at 9.7 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
San Luis Obispo, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 10, 2022 | Windstorm | 29,494 | 23% | 37 h | 23 h | 315k |
| Feb 4, 2024 | Flooding | 31,018 | 25% | 32 h | 19 h | 298k |
| Jan 27, 2021 | No storm report | 12,574 | 10% | 36 h | 19 h | 145k |
| Jan 9, 2023 | Windstorm | 21,675 | 17% | 11 h | 14 h | 116k |
| Feb 1, 2020 | No storm report | 18,921 | 15% | 9.5 h | 8.5 h | 90k |
| Oct 24, 2021 | No storm report | 10,948 | 9% | 19 h | 10 h | 77k |
| Jan 4, 2023 | Windstorm | 7,445 | 6% | 22 h | 21 h | 74k |
| Jun 21, 2025 | No storm report | 5,531 | 4% | 23 h | 8.0 h | 66k |
| Jan 10, 2023 | Flooding | 12,047 | 10% | 6.0 h | 18 h | 56k |
| Feb 24, 2023 | No storm report | 4,534 | 4% | 12 h | – | 40k |
| Feb 2, 2019 | No storm report | 7,994 | 6% | 10 h | 15 h | 37k |
| Oct 14, 2022 | No storm report | 10,366 | 8% | 3.5 h | 1.8 h | 35k |
| Oct 2, 2022 | No storm report | 5,722 | 5% | 6.2 h | 1.5 h | 35k |
| Sep 17, 2021 | No storm report | 4,223 | 3% | 12 h | – | 34k |
| Aug 18, 2021 | No storm report | 6,953 | 6% | 10 h | 1.5 h | 32k |
| Jul 24, 2025 | No storm report | 2,579 | 2% | 17 h | – | 25k |
| Sep 13, 2021 | No storm report | 2,672 | 2% | 10 h | – | 23k |
| Oct 12, 2021 | No storm report | 3,758 | 3% | 7.0 h | – | 22k |
| Jun 12, 2024 | No storm report | 5,530 | 4% | 4.0 h | 1.2 h | 22k |
| Jun 28, 2023 | No storm report | 7,124 | 6% | 3.5 h | 1.2 h | 21k |
| Sep 2, 2025 | No storm report | 4,972 | 4% | 9.5 h | – | 20k |
| Sep 9, 2021 | No storm report | 2,867 | 2% | 7.8 h | – | 19k |
| Feb 21, 2023 | Windstorm | 4,203 | 3% | 6.8 h | – | 19k |
| Jun 30, 2024 | No storm report | 6,758 | 5% | 2.8 h | 3.5 h | 19k |
| Sep 8, 2022 | No storm report | 6,328 | 5% | 4.2 h | 3.8 h | 18k |
| Oct 9, 2021 | No storm report | 3,117 | 2% | 6.5 h | – | 18k |
| Jul 29, 2023 | No storm report | 9,179 | 7% | 2.5 h | 2.5 h | 17k |
| Aug 20, 2024 | No storm report | 3,812 | 3% | 4.8 h | – | 17k |
| Feb 23, 2019 | No storm report | 6,839 | 5% | 2.5 h | 30 min | 17k |
| Sep 26, 2021 | No storm report | 3,118 | 2% | 7.2 h | – | 17k |
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 San Luis Obispo from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 72%
- Windstorm 16%
- Flooding 10%
- Wildfire 1.0%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving San Luis Obispo
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 |
| Central Coast Community Energy | Community Choice Aggregator | – | – | – | – | – |
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
- Monterey 9.9 h
- San Luis Obispo (this county) 6.7 h
- Santa Barbara 5.6 h
- Kern 4.3 h
- Kings 2.9 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 125,727 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 →