Power outage history
Franklin County Massachusetts
3.6hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
11th most of 14 in Massachusetts 45% 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 Franklin's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2020 was the worst well-recorded year, at 7.5 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Franklin, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 7, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 9,863 | 17% | 2.1 d | 44 h | 225k |
| Mar 14, 2023 | Winter storm | 8,588 | 15% | 45 h | 32 h | 190k |
| Oct 17, 2019 | Windstorm | 5,146 | 9% | 3.2 d | 2.8 d | 133k |
| Aug 4, 2020 | Hurricane Isaias | 6,352 | 11% | 41 h | 35 h | 92k |
| Feb 16, 2025 | Winter storm | 2,429 | 4% | 2.3 d | – | 92k |
| Jan 23, 2023 | Winter storm | 3,103 | 5% | 2.2 d | 40 h | 80k |
| Jul 16, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 3,810 | 7% | 19 h | 18 h | 38k |
| Feb 25, 2019 | Windstorm | 4,174 | 7% | 20 h | 22 h | 33k |
| Feb 29, 2024 | Windstorm | 3,927 | 7% | 14 h | 11 h | 27k |
| May 15, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 1,748 | 3% | 23 h | – | 26k |
| Mar 1, 2021 | Windstorm | 2,584 | 4% | 16 h | – | 24k |
| Oct 29, 2017 | No storm report | 2,352 | 4% | 19 h | – | 22k |
| Feb 25, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 1,879 | 3% | 18 h | – | 22k |
| Mar 7, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 2,708 | 5% | 16 h | – | 22k |
| Mar 23, 2024 | No storm report | 1,671 | 3% | 23 h | – | 21k |
| Nov 15, 2020 | Windstorm | 2,003 | 3% | 15 h | – | 19k |
| Apr 5, 2018 | No storm report | 2,303 | 4% | 13 h | – | 19k |
| Oct 27, 2016 | Winter storm | 3,426 | 6% | 11 h | 9.0 h | 18k |
| Jan 16, 2016 | No storm report | 5,218 | 9% | 3.8 h | 14 h | 16k |
| Jul 21, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 1,818 | 3% | 13 h | – | 16k |
| Jan 26, 2023 | No storm report | 1,450 | 3% | 17 h | – | 16k |
| Sep 14, 2015 | No storm report | 5,194 | 9% | 4.8 h | 6.0 h | 12k |
| Jun 18, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 2,001 | 3% | 11 h | – | 11k |
| Dec 16, 2022 | Winter storm | 1,309 | 2% | 7.8 h | – | 7.4k |
| Jan 16, 2025 | No storm report | 10,330 | 18% | 1.2 h | 1.2 h | 7.0k |
| Nov 27, 2018 | Winter storm | 1,574 | 3% | 6.2 h | – | 6.9k |
| Feb 9, 2019 | Windstorm | 892 | 2% | 8.0 h | – | 6.7k |
| Jun 13, 2017 | No storm report | 5,251 | 9% | 1.5 h | 6.0 h | 6.1k |
| Apr 25, 2017 | No storm report | 698 | 1% | 9.0 h | – | 5.8k |
| Aug 15, 2018 | No storm report | 802 | 1% | 7.2 h | – | 5.8k |
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 Franklin from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Winter storm 31%
- Thunderstorms 28%
- Windstorm 21%
- No storm on record 13%
- Tropical storm 7.4%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Franklin
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NSTAR Electric Company | Investor Owned | 113 | 66 | 0.81 | 21.5 | 1.3M |
| Massachusetts Electric Co | Investor Owned | 133 | 91 | 1.00 | 33.7 | 1.2M |
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
- Windham, VT 37 h
- Cheshire, NH 11 h
- Bennington, VT 7.5 h
- Worcester 4.0 h
- Franklin (this county) 3.6 h
- Berkshire 3.3 h
- Hampshire 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 57,949 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 →