Power outage history
Mercer County North Dakota
The outage record here is too thin for a reliable yearly average. Raw events are listed below.
Worst outage on record Jul 24, 2023 10% of customers out · 90% back in 9.3 daysEvery day since 2015
Eleven years, one night at a time
Each cell is a day. The brighter it is, the larger the share of Mercer's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
Mercer, 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 23, 2023 | No storm report | 630 | 10% | 10.0 d | 9.3 d | 150k |
| Oct 3, 2017 | No storm report | 1,789 | 30% | 2.0 h | 2.0 h | 2.5k |
| May 14, 2025 | No storm report | 202 | 3% | 10 h | – | 1.8k |
| Jun 13, 2018 | No storm report | 613 | 10% | 2.2 h | 2.5 h | 1.4k |
| Nov 12, 2019 | No storm report | 1,671 | 28% | 48 min | 48 min | 1.1k |
| Sep 2, 2018 | No storm report | 613 | 10% | 1.8 h | 30 min | 946 |
| Jun 29, 2017 | No storm report | 131 | 2% | 6.8 h | – | 783 |
| Sep 15, 2019 | No storm report | 965 | 16% | 48 min | 48 min | 724 |
| Jun 29, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 224 | 4% | 3.2 h | – | 724 |
| Apr 23, 2022 | Winter storm | 177 | 3% | 4.5 h | – | 628 |
| Aug 11, 2019 | No storm report | 998 | 17% | 30 min | 30 min | 498 |
| Jul 7, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 109 | 2% | 4.8 h | – | 492 |
| Nov 9, 2023 | No storm report | 614 | 10% | 48 min | 48 min | 460 |
| Jun 27, 2023 | No storm report | 453 | 8% | 1.0 h | 30 min | 451 |
| May 26, 2022 | No storm report | 151 | 3% | 2.8 h | – | 406 |
| May 8, 2022 | No storm report | 150 | 2% | 2.2 h | – | 338 |
| May 8, 2022 | No storm report | 149 | 2% | 1.8 h | – | 257 |
| Feb 13, 2021 | Winter storm | 246 | 4% | 2.0 h | – | 238 |
| Aug 3, 2020 | No storm report | 159 | 3% | 1.0 h | – | 158 |
| May 26, 2019 | No storm report | 159 | 3% | 48 min | – | 119 |
| Nov 3, 2019 | No storm report | 66 | 1% | 1.8 h | – | 116 |
| May 25, 2017 | No storm report | 92 | 2% | 1.2 h | – | 115 |
| May 2, 2025 | No storm report | 70 | 1% | 1.5 h | – | 104 |
| Dec 8, 2022 | No storm report | 68 | 1% | 1.5 h | – | 102 |
| Aug 16, 2023 | No storm report | 64 | 1% | 1.5 h | – | 96 |
| Jun 6, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 354 | 6% | 12 min | 8.5 h | 88 |
| Jun 30, 2025 | No storm report | 342 | 6% | 12 min | – | 86 |
| Oct 29, 2021 | No storm report | 152 | 3% | 30 min | – | 76 |
| Nov 13, 2022 | No storm report | 73 | 1% | 48 min | – | 55 |
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 Mercer from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 99%
- Thunderstorms 0.8%
- Winter storm 0.5%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Mercer
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole North Dakota territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mor-Gran-Sou Electric Coop Inc | ND | – | – | – | 13.4 | 92k |
| Montana-Dakota Utilities Co | Investor Owned | 95 | 65 | 0.81 | 11.1 | 80k |
| Roughrider Electric Cooperativ | Cooperative | – | – | – | 10.8 | 11k |
| McKenzie Electric Coop Inc | Cooperative | 111 | 111 | 0.93 | 8.0 | 5.4k |
| City of Stanton | ND | – | – | – | – | 2.7k |
| WAPA-- Western Area Power Administration | Federal | – | – | – | – | – |
| Basin Electric Power 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 6,015 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 →