– 0% of Essex out 0 customers out in Massachusetts

Power outage history

Essex County Massachusetts

8.0hours

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

3rd most of 14 in Massachusetts 1.2× the national median

Worst outage on record Mar 8, 2018 52% of customers out · 90% back in 2.0 days

Hours without power, average customer per year 8.0h / yr State average 5.7 h · national median 6.6 h

Major outages a year 0.9 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers

Typical time to restore 90% 32hours Median across major outages, from the peak

Longest single outage 3.9days Oct 29, 2017, over 1% of customers out

Outage hours on storm days 84% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here

Worst year 2018 27 hours without power, average customer

Electricity customers 216,314 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 Essex'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

2018 was the worst well-recorded year, at 27 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Essex, hours without power per customer

EssexUS median countyMassachusetts average

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
Mar 7, 2018	Winter storm	112,655	52%	3.1 d	2.0 d	3.7M
Oct 29, 2017	Windstorm	78,644	36%	3.9 d	2.9 d	3.3M
Oct 17, 2019	Windstorm	54,383	25%	2.5 d	32 h	1.2M
Sep 8, 2023	Thunderstorms	29,645	14%	2.8 d	2.1 d	1.1M
Oct 26, 2021	Tropical Storm Wanda	43,048	20%	41 h	28 h	594k
Mar 14, 2017	Winter storm	43,083	20%	32 h	22 h	572k
Mar 2, 2018	Windstorm	27,964	13%	2.1 d	37 h	475k
Sep 15, 2018	No storm report	18,720	9%	32 h	31 h	437k
Dec 23, 2022	Windstorm	23,554	11%	40 h	32 h	432k
Sep 13, 2018	No storm report	17,912	8%	24 h	32 h	403k
Dec 18, 2023	Windstorm	22,269	10%	34 h	27 h	337k
Feb 5, 2016	Winter storm	20,316	9%	23 h	18 h	120k
Jul 23, 2016	Thunderstorms	9,338	4%	16 h	20 h	99k
Apr 4, 2024	Windstorm	12,904	6%	19 h	25 h	86k
Mar 1, 2021	Windstorm	9,591	4%	12 h	15 h	67k
Mar 13, 2018	Winter storm	11,843	5%	9.8 h	9.5 h	51k
Aug 4, 2020	Hurricane Isaias	8,858	4%	11 h	15 h	50k
Jun 18, 2018	Thunderstorms	11,446	5%	6.0 h	3.5 h	41k
Jan 17, 2022	Windstorm	11,431	5%	5.5 h	4.5 h	40k
Sep 30, 2020	Windstorm	13,560	6%	7.0 h	4.8 h	38k
Aug 23, 2020	Thunderstorms	8,853	4%	6.0 h	11 h	36k
Mar 7, 2025	Windstorm	6,414	3%	10 h	18 h	34k
Oct 28, 2021	No storm report	8,394	4%	5.2 h	9.8 h	31k
Feb 2, 2021	Winter storm	11,419	5%	8.5 h	9.2 h	30k
Oct 27, 2018	Windstorm	5,072	2%	12 h	12 h	29k
Feb 17, 2025	Winter storm	6,912	3%	6.8 h	7.5 h	29k
Aug 21, 2019	Thunderstorms	11,367	5%	4.0 h	2.8 h	29k
Nov 15, 2020	Windstorm	7,513	3%	4.5 h	6.8 h	27k
Mar 4, 2019	Winter storm	4,929	2%	7.0 h	–	25k
Jul 28, 2016	No storm report	18,269	8%	2.2 h	2.0 h	23k

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 Essex from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.

Winter storm 37%
Windstorm 28%
No storm on record 16%
Thunderstorms 12%
Tropical storm 6.4%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Essex

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

Utility	Type	Outage min / yr	Excl. major storms	Outages / yr	Residential ¢/kWh	Customers
Massachusetts Electric Co	Investor Owned	133	91	1.00	33.7	1.2M
City of Marblehead	MA	296	23	0.78	16.6	72k
Town of Ipswich	MA	70	20	0.88	15.3	48k
Town of Middleton	MA	–	–	–	13.6	37k
Town of Georgetown	MA	–	–	–	–	29k
Town of Merrimac	MA	31	31	0.22	–	23k
City of Peabody	Municipal	–	–	–	16.9	23k
Town of Groveland	MA	–	–	–	–	22k
Town of Rowley	MA	69	43	1.22	–	21k
Town of Danvers	Municipal	49	49	0.48	16.6	12k

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

Essex (this county) 8.0 h
Rockingham, NH 6.2 h
Middlesex 5.5 h
Hillsborough, NH 4.6 h
Suffolk 1.7 h

Across Massachusetts

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All Massachusetts 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 216,314 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 →