Power outage history
Benzie County Michigan
13hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
44th most of 83 in Michigan 2.0× 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 Benzie's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2021 was the worst well-recorded year, at 24 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Benzie, 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 16, 2021 | Windstorm | 4,936 | 52% | 2.7 d | 2.2 d | 138k |
| Dec 29, 2025 | Winter storm | 4,310 | 45% | 48 h | 32 h | 78k |
| Nov 5, 2022 | No storm report | 2,404 | 25% | 45 h | 19 h | 50k |
| Jun 10, 2020 | Tropical Storm Cristobal | 2,888 | 30% | 2.5 d | 43 h | 49k |
| Oct 17, 2022 | No storm report | 2,397 | 25% | 2.0 d | 24 h | 48k |
| Dec 24, 2015 | Windstorm | 3,763 | 39% | 41 h | 21 h | 43k |
| Oct 16, 2019 | No storm report | 3,960 | 41% | 21 h | 5.0 h | 39k |
| Mar 20, 2025 | No storm report | 4,281 | 45% | 13 h | 15 h | 39k |
| Jul 7, 2017 | No storm report | 9,545 | 100% | 8.2 h | 8.2 h | 37k |
| May 24, 2017 | No storm report | 9,145 | 96% | 6.0 h | 5.5 h | 28k |
| Jul 18, 2020 | No storm report | 3,043 | 32% | 26 h | 5.0 h | 26k |
| May 31, 2018 | Tropical Storm Alberto | 5,081 | 53% | 8.5 h | 5.0 h | 21k |
| Aug 10, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 3,181 | 33% | 20 h | 19 h | 19k |
| Nov 26, 2025 | No storm report | 2,780 | 29% | 23 h | 7.8 h | 16k |
| Nov 1, 2020 | No storm report | 829 | 9% | 39 h | 1.2 h | 16k |
| Dec 5, 2017 | No storm report | 2,233 | 23% | 21 h | 15 h | 16k |
| Oct 24, 2015 | No storm report | 3,015 | 32% | 8.0 h | 5.0 h | 16k |
| Aug 28, 2018 | No storm report | 920 | 10% | 27 h | 24 h | 15k |
| May 27, 2018 | No storm report | 3,565 | 37% | 5.0 h | 3.2 h | 15k |
| Dec 11, 2021 | No storm report | 1,364 | 14% | 15 h | 8.8 h | 14k |
| Mar 29, 2015 | No storm report | 3,269 | 34% | 5.2 h | 4.0 h | 13k |
| Oct 3, 2018 | No storm report | 3,575 | 37% | 5.0 h | 4.2 h | 13k |
| Oct 21, 2019 | No storm report | 3,385 | 35% | 6.5 h | 2.0 h | 12k |
| Feb 24, 2019 | Winter storm | 709 | 7% | 41 h | 21 h | 11k |
| Oct 1, 2019 | No storm report | 8,742 | 92% | 2.8 h | 2.5 h | 11k |
| Apr 4, 2020 | No storm report | 1,919 | 20% | 8.2 h | 30 min | 10k |
| Jul 10, 2016 | No storm report | 1,472 | 15% | 8.8 h | 7.8 h | 9.8k |
| Nov 15, 2020 | No storm report | 1,042 | 11% | 36 h | 33 h | 9.6k |
| May 22, 2023 | No storm report | 4,084 | 43% | 3.8 h | 3.0 h | 9.2k |
| Aug 2, 2015 | No storm report | 975 | 10% | 24 h | 19 h | 9.0k |
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 Benzie from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 63%
- Windstorm 15%
- Winter storm 11%
- Tropical storm 7.6%
- Thunderstorms 2.8%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Benzie
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Michigan territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consumers Energy Co | Investor Owned | 820 | 164 | 1.40 | 20.7 | 1.7M |
| Cherryland Electric Coop Inc | Cooperative | 100 | 68 | 0.87 | 17.3 | 36k |
| Wolverine Power Supply Coop | Cooperative | – | – | – | – | – |
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
- Leelanau 19 h
- Benzie (this county) 13 h
- Wexford 11 h
- Manistee 10 h
- Grand Traverse 2.8 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 9,545 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 →