Power outage history
Columbia County Georgia
23hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
28th most of 156 in Georgia 3.5× 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 Columbia'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 7.1 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Columbia, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 27, 2024 | Hurricane Helene | 66,977 | 100% | 15.7 d | 7.1 d | 11M |
| Sep 11, 2017 | Hurricane Irma | 14,958 | 22% | 3.4 d | 2.1 d | 402k |
| Jan 3, 2022 | Windstorm | 10,588 | 16% | 15 h | 10 h | 72k |
| Dec 24, 2022 | No storm report | 3,254 | 5% | 23 h | – | 58k |
| Oct 11, 2018 | Hurricane Michael | 6,813 | 10% | 17 h | 15 h | 51k |
| Jul 20, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 6,007 | 9% | 14 h | 14 h | 31k |
| Jun 7, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 7,813 | 12% | 6.2 h | 6.0 h | 27k |
| Jan 9, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 8,430 | 13% | 13 h | 5.5 h | 26k |
| Jun 20, 2019 | No storm report | 2,819 | 4% | 8.5 h | – | 14k |
| Apr 13, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 3,376 | 5% | 6.5 h | 3.8 h | 14k |
| Aug 8, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 1,319 | 2% | 10 h | – | 13k |
| Feb 24, 2016 | No storm report | 4,433 | 7% | 4.2 h | 4.0 h | 12k |
| Jul 15, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 1,613 | 2% | 11 h | – | 11k |
| Jun 27, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 3,774 | 6% | 5.0 h | 5.5 h | 10k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | No storm report | 3,500 | 5% | 3.5 h | 4.8 h | 9.8k |
| Jun 25, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 3,002 | 4% | 4.8 h | – | 9.5k |
| Jun 21, 2025 | No storm report | 1,631 | 2% | 11 h | – | 9.3k |
| Aug 3, 2020 | Hurricane Isaias | 3,100 | 5% | 4.8 h | – | 9.2k |
| Jun 24, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 8,278 | 12% | 2.5 h | 2.0 h | 9.1k |
| May 6, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 4,382 | 7% | 3.0 h | 1.8 h | 8.9k |
| Nov 15, 2024 | No storm report | 3,969 | 6% | 5.2 h | 4.0 h | 8.5k |
| May 25, 2023 | No storm report | 1,027 | 2% | 8.2 h | – | 8.4k |
| Feb 24, 2016 | Windstorm | 3,189 | 5% | 7.0 h | – | 8.3k |
| Feb 2, 2015 | No storm report | 1,659 | 2% | 8.5 h | – | 8.2k |
| Jul 2, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 3,206 | 5% | 3.5 h | – | 7.9k |
| Mar 30, 2017 | No storm report | 9,042 | 14% | 1.0 h | 6.8 h | 7.3k |
| Apr 3, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 3,981 | 6% | 3.0 h | 2.5 h | 7.2k |
| Sep 3, 2022 | No storm report | 895 | 1% | 7.5 h | – | 6.7k |
| Nov 4, 2020 | No storm report | 12,931 | 19% | 30 min | 30 min | 6.5k |
| Jun 6, 2021 | No storm report | 6,968 | 10% | 2.0 h | 1.5 h | 6.1k |
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 Columbia from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 95%
- No storm on record 2.6%
- Thunderstorms 1.7%
- Windstorm 0.6%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Columbia
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Georgia territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Georgia Power Co | Investor Owned | 287 | 155 | 1.83 | 16.3 | 2.5M |
| Jefferson Electric Member Corp | Cooperative | 163 | 143 | 1.77 | 14.6 | 35k |
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
- McCormick, SC 44 h
- Lincoln 33 h
- Edgefield, SC 27 h
- McDuffie 26 h
- Columbia (this county) 23 h
- Richmond 17 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 66,977 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 →