Power outage history
Ottawa County Michigan
6.4hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
71st most of 83 in Michigan close to 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 Ottawa's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2019 was the worst well-recorded year, at 10.0 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Ottawa, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 7, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 61,143 | 51% | 3.0 d | 2.4 d | 1.4M |
| May 15, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 15,748 | 13% | 2.8 d | 2.5 d | 580k |
| Jun 9, 2020 | Tropical Storm Cristobal | 17,408 | 14% | 3.0 d | 2.0 d | 463k |
| Jul 20, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 14,532 | 12% | 2.5 d | 29 h | 357k |
| Feb 6, 2019 | Ice storm | 7,876 | 7% | 3.4 d | 47 h | 304k |
| Jun 25, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 9,866 | 8% | 2.2 d | 2.2 d | 284k |
| Aug 10, 2021 | No storm report | 9,786 | 8% | 20 h | 4.8 h | 177k |
| Jul 23, 2022 | No storm report | 11,893 | 10% | 33 h | 27 h | 172k |
| Dec 16, 2021 | Windstorm | 8,082 | 7% | 39 h | 3.2 h | 145k |
| Nov 27, 2019 | No storm report | 6,619 | 6% | 47 h | 42 h | 138k |
| Dec 24, 2015 | No storm report | 7,127 | 6% | 36 h | 34 h | 110k |
| Jan 12, 2024 | Winter storm | 4,670 | 4% | 44 h | – | 107k |
| Dec 11, 2021 | Windstorm | 6,222 | 5% | 30 h | 30 h | 101k |
| Mar 30, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 7,133 | 6% | 30 h | 26 h | 99k |
| Aug 12, 2021 | No storm report | 6,875 | 6% | 28 h | 4.2 h | 91k |
| Nov 26, 2025 | No storm report | 5,590 | 5% | 26 h | 18 h | 87k |
| Feb 24, 2019 | Windstorm | 3,468 | 3% | 27 h | – | 71k |
| Aug 29, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 8,167 | 7% | 13 h | 5.0 h | 64k |
| Jan 9, 2024 | No storm report | 7,182 | 6% | 16 h | 13 h | 64k |
| Dec 28, 2015 | No storm report | 6,984 | 6% | 16 h | 16 h | 61k |
| Oct 31, 2023 | Winter storm | 3,911 | 3% | 25 h | – | 49k |
| Nov 15, 2020 | Windstorm | 3,311 | 3% | 15 h | – | 43k |
| Nov 5, 2022 | No storm report | 3,353 | 3% | 19 h | – | 42k |
| Jun 22, 2024 | No storm report | 4,511 | 4% | 7.2 h | – | 30k |
| Apr 12, 2024 | No storm report | 5,897 | 5% | 9.5 h | 10 h | 29k |
| Jun 30, 2023 | No storm report | 3,267 | 3% | 9.0 h | – | 29k |
| Aug 26, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 2,978 | 2% | 12 h | – | 28k |
| Jul 14, 2020 | No storm report | 2,455 | 2% | 12 h | – | 28k |
| Apr 14, 2018 | Winter storm | 2,523 | 2% | 15 h | – | 25k |
| Nov 21, 2021 | No storm report | 5,222 | 4% | 8.2 h | 19 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 Ottawa from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Thunderstorms 34%
- No storm on record 34%
- Tropical storm 11%
- Windstorm 9.0%
- Ice storm 7.1%
- Winter storm 4.4%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Ottawa
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 |
| City of Holland | Municipal | 71 | 33 | 0.40 | 11.4 | 27k |
| City of Grand Haven | Municipal | 144 | 34 | 1.21 | 15.1 | 13k |
| City of Zeeland | Municipal | 25 | 25 | 0.26 | 10.0 | 6.1k |
| 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 120,140 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 →