Power outage history
Nicollet County Minnesota
0.8hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
54th most of 54 in Minnesota 89% 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 Nicollet's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2025 was the worst well-recorded year, at 1.6 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Nicollet, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 11, 2025 | No storm report | 2,533 | 17% | 3.8 h | 48 min | 8.6k |
| Jul 28, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 858 | 6% | 13 h | 8.0 h | 5.4k |
| Oct 5, 2021 | No storm report | 1,836 | 12% | 2.8 h | 3.0 h | 4.5k |
| Jul 18, 2015 | No storm report | 523 | 3% | 13 h | – | 4.4k |
| Oct 11, 2025 | No storm report | 2,343 | 16% | 2.0 h | 1.0 h | 3.8k |
| Apr 30, 2023 | No storm report | 2,088 | 14% | 1.5 h | 1.2 h | 2.9k |
| Jul 9, 2020 | No storm report | 1,718 | 11% | 1.5 h | 1.5 h | 2.6k |
| Feb 10, 2023 | No storm report | 673 | 4% | 3.8 h | – | 2.5k |
| Aug 12, 2020 | No storm report | 1,412 | 9% | 1.8 h | 48 min | 2.4k |
| Jun 24, 2016 | No storm report | 590 | 4% | 4.0 h | – | 2.4k |
| Oct 22, 2024 | No storm report | 406 | 3% | 6.5 h | – | 2.3k |
| Jul 6, 2017 | No storm report | 1,036 | 7% | 3.5 h | 3.5 h | 2.3k |
| Jun 17, 2024 | No storm report | 1,046 | 7% | 2.0 h | 2.2 h | 2.1k |
| May 30, 2015 | No storm report | 284 | 2% | 5.8 h | – | 1.6k |
| Aug 21, 2024 | No storm report | 1,044 | 7% | 1.5 h | 12 h | 1.6k |
| Mar 14, 2019 | No storm report | 683 | 5% | 2.2 h | – | 1.5k |
| Jan 24, 2025 | No storm report | 1,989 | 13% | 48 min | 1.2 h | 1.4k |
| Jun 5, 2024 | No storm report | 1,045 | 7% | 1.2 h | 1.5 h | 1.3k |
| Sep 20, 2020 | No storm report | 1,045 | 7% | 1.2 h | 1.2 h | 1.3k |
| Jan 7, 2020 | No storm report | 729 | 5% | 1.8 h | – | 1.3k |
| Dec 22, 2022 | Winter storm | 798 | 5% | 1.5 h | 1.5 h | 1.2k |
| Jan 10, 2022 | No storm report | 682 | 5% | 1.8 h | – | 1.2k |
| Dec 27, 2024 | No storm report | 288 | 2% | 4.5 h | – | 1.2k |
| Apr 18, 2019 | No storm report | 670 | 4% | 1.8 h | – | 1.2k |
| Apr 12, 2020 | Winter storm | 427 | 3% | 2.8 h | – | 1.1k |
| Jun 8, 2018 | No storm report | 380 | 3% | 2.8 h | – | 1.0k |
| Dec 13, 2022 | No storm report | 1,039 | 7% | 1.0 h | 1.0 h | 1.0k |
| Oct 6, 2025 | No storm report | 453 | 3% | 2.2 h | – | 960 |
| Jun 10, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 479 | 3% | 2.8 h | – | 873 |
| Sep 24, 2019 | No storm report | 382 | 3% | 2.2 h | – | 858 |
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 Nicollet from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 86%
- Thunderstorms 8.9%
- Winter storm 4.0%
- Flooding 1.4%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Nicollet
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Minnesota territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northern States Power Co - Minnesota | Investor Owned | 226 | 115 | 1.38 | 17.1 | 1.2M |
| Brown County Rural Elec Assn | MN | 121 | 35 | 1.01 | 11.8 | 68k |
| Renville-Sibley Coop Pwr Assn | MN | 301 | 91 | 2.28 | 12.4 | 37k |
| City of Saint Peter | MN | 6 | – | 0.06 | 13.7 | 28k |
| BENCO Electric Cooperative | Cooperative | 82 | 69 | 0.92 | 16.1 | 19k |
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
- Le Sueur 3.5 h
- Sibley 1.8 h
- Blue Earth 1.7 h
- Renville 1.6 h
- Nicollet (this county) 0.8 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 15,048 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 →