Power outage history
Polk County Minnesota
1.8hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
73% 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 Polk'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 2.9 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Polk, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 3, 2022 | No storm report | 834 | 4% | 2.5 d | – | 51k |
| Jun 21, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 4,006 | 21% | 14 h | 11 h | 35k |
| Jun 21, 2022 | No storm report | 761 | 4% | 46 h | – | 12k |
| Jul 28, 2024 | No storm report | 2,331 | 12% | 7.8 h | 10 h | 8.0k |
| Apr 12, 2022 | Winter storm | 746 | 4% | 11 h | – | 7.8k |
| Dec 9, 2023 | No storm report | 620 | 3% | 14 h | – | 5.0k |
| Apr 2, 2020 | Winter storm | 4,470 | 23% | 4.0 h | 1.5 h | 4.7k |
| Jun 7, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 1,723 | 9% | 3.2 h | 1.0 h | 3.7k |
| Jul 9, 2023 | No storm report | 2,473 | 13% | 1.5 h | 12 h | 3.4k |
| Jul 23, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 521 | 3% | 4.0 h | – | 2.1k |
| Jun 20, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 1,144 | 6% | 5.0 h | 4.8 h | 2.0k |
| Oct 11, 2025 | No storm report | 680 | 4% | 8.8 h | – | 2.0k |
| Jul 18, 2022 | No storm report | 1,239 | 6% | 1.5 h | 1.5 h | 1.9k |
| Aug 29, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 744 | 4% | 3.5 h | – | 1.8k |
| Sep 8, 2023 | No storm report | 766 | 4% | 2.5 h | – | 1.8k |
| Jul 26, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 248 | 1% | 7.2 h | – | 1.8k |
| Jan 17, 2023 | No storm report | 395 | 2% | 5.2 h | – | 1.7k |
| Jun 17, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 835 | 4% | 2.0 h | – | 1.7k |
| Oct 27, 2023 | Winter storm | 622 | 3% | 2.5 h | – | 1.5k |
| May 23, 2022 | No storm report | 526 | 3% | 2.8 h | – | 1.4k |
| Apr 22, 2022 | No storm report | 442 | 2% | 5.8 h | – | 1.4k |
| Jul 17, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 435 | 2% | 4.2 h | – | 1.4k |
| Apr 17, 2023 | Flooding | 1,751 | 9% | 1.0 h | 1.0 h | 1.3k |
| May 15, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 1,019 | 5% | 1.8 h | 1.8 h | 1.2k |
| Apr 9, 2021 | No storm report | 526 | 3% | 2.0 h | – | 1.1k |
| Jul 25, 2022 | No storm report | 834 | 4% | 1.2 h | – | 1.0k |
| Jul 16, 2024 | No storm report | 262 | 1% | 4.2 h | – | 1.0k |
| Oct 15, 2020 | No storm report | 209 | 1% | 4.2 h | – | 888 |
| Aug 30, 2020 | No storm report | 435 | 2% | 1.8 h | – | 761 |
| Oct 30, 2023 | No storm report | 283 | 1% | 2.5 h | – | 708 |
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 Polk from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 60%
- Thunderstorms 31%
- Winter storm 8.1%
- Flooding 0.8%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Polk
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 |
| Red Lake Electric Coop, Inc | MN | 130 | 130 | 0.74 | 12.2 | 93k |
| Red River Valley Coop Pwr Assn | MN | 81 | 81 | 0.62 | 12.7 | 86k |
| P K M Electric Coop, Inc | MN | 84 | 84 | 0.21 | 13.3 | 71k |
| Clearwater-Polk Elec Coop Inc | MN | 116 | 116 | 0.43 | 13.6 | 63k |
| Otter Tail Power Co | Investor Owned | 557 | 136 | 1.74 | 11.3 | 50k |
| City of East Grand Forks | MN | 94 | 25 | 0.80 | 10.9 | 38k |
| Wild Rice Electric Coop, Inc | Cooperative | 688 | 259 | 2.67 | 14.7 | 14k |
| City of Fosston | MN | – | – | – | – | 7.7k |
| City of Nielsville | MN | – | – | – | – | 402 |
| WAPA-- Western Area Power Administration | Federal | – | – | – | – | – |
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
- Mahnomen 7.7 h
- Norman 6.7 h
- Traill, ND 2.1 h
- Polk (this county) 1.8 h
- Grand Forks, ND 0.9 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 19,237 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 →