Power Out Map
– 0% of Bell out 0 customers out in Kentucky

Power outage history

Bell County Kentucky

8.2hours

without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025

60th most of 119 in Kentucky 1.2× the national median

Worst outage on record Apr 13, 2020 29% of customers out · 90% back in 42 hours
Hours without power, average customer per year 8.2h / yr State average 7.7 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 3.0 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 2hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 2.6days Hurricane Helene, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 45% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2024 13 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 12,248 ORNL customer model · 8 well-covered years

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 Bell's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.

20152016201720182019202020212022202320242025
0%100% of customers out

Year by year

Hours in the dark, per customer

2024 was the worst well-recorded year, at 13 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Bell, hours without power per customer

BellUS median countyKentucky average
0 5 10 15 2.9 ’15 5.7 ’16 3.3 ’17 4.5 ’18 4.7 ’19 8.9 ’20 8.9 ’21 7.4 ’22 8.7 ’23 13 ’24 9.7 ’25 KY 7.7 US 6.6

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
Apr 12, 2020 No storm report 3,542 29% 46 h 42 h 59k
Sep 27, 2024 Hurricane Helene 2,567 21% 2.6 d 40 h 52k
Mar 3, 2023 Windstorm 2,860 23% 2.1 d 43 h 47k
May 17, 2025 No storm report 2,632 21% 40 h 33 h 36k
May 26, 2024 Thunderstorms 1,381 11% 2.0 d 40 h 28k
Apr 1, 2023 Windstorm 1,115 9% 30 h 29 h 20k
Feb 16, 2025 No storm report 3,867 32% 28 h 1.5 h 18k
Feb 7, 2021 Winter storm 1,969 16% 25 h 20 h 17k
Jul 8, 2016 Thunderstorms 1,709 14% 23 h 20 h 15k
Mar 28, 2021 Flooding 3,968 32% 26 h 3.2 h 14k
Jul 12, 2022 Thunderstorms 2,859 23% 11 h 11 h 13k
May 16, 2021 No storm report 4,899 40% 5.2 h 4.2 h 12k

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.

0% 25% 50% 75% 100% peak+24h+48h+72h+96h half back by +8h 90% by +28h

When it happens

The outage clock

Customer-hours out by month (rings, January innermost) and local hour, 2018–2025.

00061218 Jan inside

What was happening

Weather behind the outages

Each outage is matched to NOAA storm reports for Bell from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.

  • No storm on record 55%
  • Thunderstorms 14%
  • Windstorm 12%
  • Tropical storm 8.8%
  • Flooding 7.3%
  • Winter storm 3.4%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Bell

As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Kentucky territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.

Utility Type Outage min / yr Excl. major storms Outages / yr Residential ¢/kWh Customers
Kentucky Utilities Co Investor Owned 197 89 1.14 11.9 454k
Cumberland Valley Electric, Inc. Cooperative 910 437 4.22 13.1 23k

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

Across Kentucky

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All Kentucky counties →

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 12,248 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 →