Power outage history
Cabarrus County North Carolina
4.1hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
88th most of 100 in North Carolina 38% 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 Cabarrus's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2024 was the worst well-recorded year, at 7.8 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Cabarrus, 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 27, 2024 | Hurricane Helene | 20,431 | 17% | 37 h | 21 h | 189k |
| Aug 7, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 16,561 | 14% | 22 h | 16 h | 157k |
| Dec 24, 2022 | Winter storm | 19,208 | 16% | 16 h | 11 h | 149k |
| Oct 11, 2018 | Hurricane Michael | 6,266 | 5% | 48 h | 2.3 d | 130k |
| Jun 16, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 25,812 | 21% | 11 h | 7.0 h | 125k |
| Jan 11, 2024 | No storm report | 7,846 | 7% | 15 h | 11 h | 110k |
| Jun 17, 2022 | No storm report | 2,846 | 2% | 2.5 d | – | 102k |
| Sep 30, 2022 | Hurricane Ian | 4,590 | 4% | 21 h | – | 77k |
| Mar 12, 2022 | No storm report | 17,072 | 14% | 4.0 h | 3.0 h | 59k |
| May 8, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 4,760 | 4% | 20 h | – | 52k |
| Apr 11, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 6,020 | 5% | 14 h | 3.5 h | 45k |
| Aug 24, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 12,315 | 10% | 6.2 h | 4.5 h | 43k |
| May 28, 2020 | Tropical Storm Bertha | 3,375 | 3% | 16 h | – | 40k |
| Aug 8, 2024 | Hurricane Debby | 4,849 | 4% | 14 h | – | 37k |
| Dec 4, 2020 | No storm report | 6,898 | 6% | 5.5 h | 3.0 h | 35k |
| Jan 19, 2025 | No storm report | 12,549 | 10% | 6.2 h | 30 min | 33k |
| Apr 13, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 5,036 | 4% | 7.2 h | 9.2 h | 32k |
| Dec 9, 2018 | Winter storm | 3,688 | 3% | 12 h | – | 26k |
| Jun 20, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 4,529 | 4% | 12 h | – | 26k |
| Jun 9, 2018 | No storm report | 7,979 | 7% | 3.5 h | 3.2 h | 26k |
| Apr 6, 2021 | No storm report | 10,143 | 8% | 2.5 h | 48 min | 22k |
| Jul 22, 2020 | No storm report | 10,369 | 9% | 11 h | 11 h | 21k |
| Oct 29, 2023 | No storm report | 13,458 | 11% | 1.8 h | 12 min | 20k |
| Jul 29, 2020 | No storm report | 3,003 | 2% | 6.2 h | – | 19k |
| Jul 20, 2024 | No storm report | 2,660 | 2% | 10 h | – | 17k |
| Aug 27, 2015 | No storm report | 3,484 | 3% | 4.8 h | – | 17k |
| Dec 1, 2024 | No storm report | 7,976 | 7% | 3.2 h | 30 min | 16k |
| Jul 6, 2024 | No storm report | 2,353 | 2% | 6.8 h | – | 16k |
| Aug 5, 2017 | No storm report | 7,823 | 6% | 2.0 h | 2.0 h | 16k |
| Jul 26, 2015 | No storm report | 9,949 | 8% | 1.5 h | 1.0 h | 14k |
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 Cabarrus from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 43%
- Thunderstorms 23%
- Tropical storm 23%
- Winter storm 8.0%
- Flooding 1.1%
- Tornadoes 0.6%
- Windstorm 0.5%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Cabarrus
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole North Carolina territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC | Investor Owned | 216 | 172 | 1.35 | 13.4 | 2.0M |
| EnergyUnited Elec Member Corp | Cooperative | 169 | 121 | 1.56 | 11.6 | 124k |
| Virginia Electric & Power Co | Investor Owned | 286 | 137 | 1.49 | 12.7 | 109k |
| Union Electric Membership Corp | Cooperative | 52 | 47 | 0.68 | 13.9 | 87k |
| City of Concord | Municipal | 65 | 65 | 0.61 | 11.6 | 30k |
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
- Union 6.5 h
- Stanly 6.2 h
- Rowan 5.8 h
- Mecklenburg 5.4 h
- Cabarrus (this county) 4.1 h
- Iredell 3.9 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 120,489 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 →