– 0% of Wake out 0 customers out in North Carolina

Power outage history

Wake County North Carolina

3.0hours

without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025

94th most of 100 in North Carolina 54% below the national median

Worst outage on record Hurricane Matthew · Oct 8, 2016 21% of customers out · 90% back in 3.0 days

Hours without power, average customer per year 3.0h / yr State average 8.3 h · national median 6.6 h

Major outages a year 0.5 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers

Typical time to restore 90% 26hours Median across major outages, from the peak

Longest single outage 3.7days Hurricane Matthew, over 1% of customers out

Outage hours on storm days 92% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here

Worst year 2022 7.2 hours without power, average customer

Electricity customers 569,681 EAGLE-I 2024 count · 8 well-covered years

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 Wake's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.

20152016201720182019202020212022202320242025

0%100% of customers out

Year by year

Hours in the dark, per customer

2022 was the worst well-recorded year, at 7.2 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Wake, hours without power per customer

WakeUS median countyNorth Carolina average

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
Oct 8, 2016	Hurricane Matthew	119,303	21%	3.7 d	3.0 d	5.0M
Jan 22, 2016	Winter storm	62,541	11%	2.2 d	35 h	1.8M
Sep 30, 2022	Hurricane Ian	91,342	16%	29 h	22 h	1.4M
Feb 26, 2015	Winter storm	92,954	16%	37 h	26 h	1.2M
Jun 17, 2022	Thunderstorms	95,005	17%	27 h	22 h	1.0M
Oct 11, 2018	Hurricane Michael	56,985	10%	42 h	40 h	996k
Aug 7, 2023	Thunderstorms	79,920	14%	18 h	15 h	676k
Feb 6, 2020	Thunderstorms	43,378	8%	32 h	32 h	499k
Sep 15, 2018	Hurricane Florence	29,284	5%	21 h	13 h	467k
Sep 14, 2018	Hurricane Florence	31,888	6%	16 h	18 h	264k
Dec 23, 2022	No storm report	30,905	5%	14 h	18 h	238k
Apr 13, 2020	Thunderstorms	39,032	7%	10 h	10 h	191k
Dec 9, 2018	Winter storm	27,489	5%	12 h	9.2 h	164k
Dec 24, 2022	No storm report	20,285	4%	7.5 h	9.5 h	131k
Aug 15, 2023	Thunderstorms	16,563	3%	7.5 h	9.5 h	74k
Apr 15, 2019	Thunderstorms	16,162	3%	6.0 h	7.8 h	71k
Jan 9, 2024	Thunderstorms	18,768	3%	5.2 h	14 h	71k
Aug 4, 2020	Hurricane Isaias	10,582	2%	6.0 h	6.0 h	48k
Jan 16, 2022	Winter storm	15,390	3%	4.2 h	7.8 h	43k
Feb 14, 2015	No storm report	14,152	2%	4.2 h	6.2 h	42k
Jun 25, 2025	Thunderstorms	12,876	2%	4.5 h	7.5 h	42k
May 28, 2015	No storm report	19,508	3%	2.0 h	2.0 h	36k
Jan 17, 2018	Winter storm	13,906	2%	3.8 h	4.0 h	33k
May 16, 2023	Thunderstorms	8,659	2%	4.2 h	8.0 h	31k
May 20, 2022	Thunderstorms	6,495	1%	5.0 h	10 h	31k
Aug 19, 2019	Thunderstorms	18,733	3%	2.5 h	12 min	25k
Apr 26, 2025	No storm report	10,732	2%	2.5 h	2.5 h	23k
Oct 29, 2020	Hurricane Zeta	13,924	2%	2.2 h	4.2 h	22k
Jun 29, 2016	Thunderstorms	9,365	2%	3.0 h	8.2 h	22k
Jun 30, 2019	Thunderstorms	8,719	2%	2.5 h	14 h	21k

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 Wake from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.

Tropical storm 46%
Thunderstorms 42%
No storm on record 7.9%
Winter storm 3.9%
Flooding 0.9%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Wake

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
Duke Energy Progress	Investor Owned	183	145	1.41	15.2	1.4M
Town of Wake Forest	NC	42	–	0.26	14.4	70k
Wake Electric Membership Corp	Cooperative	211	128	1.94	14.3	56k
Town of Apex	Municipal	45	12	0.30	16.7	30k
North Carolina Eastern M P A	Municipal Mktg Authority	–	–	–	–	–

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

Chatham 9.7 h
Franklin 7.7 h
Granville 7.5 h
Nash 6.1 h
Durham 5.5 h
Harnett 4.8 h
Johnston 4.1 h
Wake (this county) 3.0 h

Across North Carolina

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All North Carolina counties →

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 569,681 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 →