Power outage history
Grand Traverse County Michigan
2.8hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
83rd most of 83 in Michigan 57% 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 Grand Traverse'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 9.5 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Grand Traverse, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 2, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 8,022 | 13% | 3.0 d | 2.5 d | 287k |
| Dec 16, 2021 | Windstorm | 8,415 | 14% | 2.6 d | 2.4 d | 278k |
| Aug 10, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 11,881 | 20% | 32 h | 17 h | 166k |
| May 12, 2025 | No storm report | 3,370 | 6% | 20 h | 19 h | 47k |
| Dec 24, 2015 | No storm report | 2,400 | 4% | 30 h | – | 42k |
| Nov 1, 2020 | Windstorm | 2,289 | 4% | 34 h | – | 39k |
| Aug 28, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 1,944 | 3% | 33 h | – | 36k |
| Aug 12, 2021 | No storm report | 4,567 | 8% | 20 h | 28 h | 31k |
| Aug 3, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 4,734 | 8% | 9.0 h | 8.2 h | 23k |
| Nov 5, 2022 | No storm report | 1,434 | 2% | 16 h | – | 21k |
| Oct 18, 2022 | No storm report | 1,242 | 2% | 21 h | – | 18k |
| Jun 10, 2020 | Tropical Storm Cristobal | 2,434 | 4% | 10 h | – | 16k |
| Nov 3, 2018 | No storm report | 2,537 | 4% | 6.0 h | – | 15k |
| May 20, 2022 | No storm report | 3,876 | 6% | 5.8 h | 5.8 h | 13k |
| May 6, 2021 | No storm report | 957 | 2% | 18 h | – | 12k |
| Jul 1, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 3,024 | 5% | 5.2 h | – | 10k |
| Mar 29, 2021 | No storm report | 3,936 | 7% | 2.5 h | 30 min | 9.8k |
| Feb 20, 2015 | No storm report | 751 | 1% | 13 h | – | 9.4k |
| Jul 23, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 2,265 | 4% | 6.5 h | – | 8.9k |
| Oct 21, 2019 | No storm report | 1,575 | 3% | 6.2 h | – | 7.3k |
| Sep 13, 2019 | No storm report | 1,228 | 2% | 9.5 h | – | 7.3k |
| Jan 9, 2022 | No storm report | 4,042 | 7% | 1.8 h | 3.8 h | 7.0k |
| Dec 31, 2018 | Winter storm | 1,130 | 2% | 8.2 h | – | 6.7k |
| Nov 9, 2018 | No storm report | 1,714 | 3% | 4.5 h | – | 6.7k |
| Apr 24, 2023 | No storm report | 1,472 | 2% | 4.2 h | – | 6.3k |
| Jun 2, 2016 | No storm report | 2,733 | 5% | 2.2 h | – | 6.1k |
| Dec 20, 2025 | No storm report | 2,688 | 4% | 3.8 h | – | 5.9k |
| May 10, 2018 | No storm report | 3,276 | 5% | 2.0 h | 1.5 h | 5.3k |
| Jul 24, 2022 | No storm report | 934 | 2% | 5.8 h | – | 5.3k |
| Jul 16, 2023 | No storm report | 1,419 | 2% | 3.5 h | – | 5.0k |
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 Grand Traverse from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Windstorm 36%
- No storm on record 32%
- Thunderstorms 27%
- Tropical storm 2.3%
- Winter storm 1.8%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Grand Traverse
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 |
| Great Lakes Energy Coop | Cooperative | 4,401 | 315 | 4.09 | 20.3 | 123k |
| Cherryland Electric Coop Inc | Cooperative | 100 | 68 | 0.87 | 17.3 | 36k |
| City of Traverse City | Municipal | 40 | 40 | 0.76 | 13.4 | 10k |
| 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.
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 60,521 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 →