Power outage history
Cheshire County New Hampshire
11hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
4th most of 10 in New Hampshire 1.6× 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 Cheshire's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2023 was the worst well-recorded year, at 32 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Cheshire, 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 14, 2023 | Winter storm | 19,245 | 53% | 3.0 d | 2.2 d | 703k |
| Jan 22, 2023 | Winter storm | 11,380 | 32% | 2.8 d | 47 h | 340k |
| Mar 23, 2024 | Winter storm | 11,033 | 31% | 2.0 d | 34 h | 238k |
| Aug 4, 2020 | Hurricane Isaias | 9,447 | 26% | 48 h | 35 h | 143k |
| Jun 18, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 13,115 | 36% | 26 h | 20 h | 143k |
| Oct 17, 2019 | No storm report | 7,038 | 20% | 44 h | 33 h | 134k |
| Oct 29, 2017 | Windstorm | 4,558 | 13% | 2.6 d | 2.1 d | 117k |
| Dec 16, 2022 | Winter storm | 6,095 | 17% | 44 h | 18 h | 111k |
| Apr 4, 2024 | Winter storm | 4,215 | 12% | 43 h | 30 h | 85k |
| Dec 5, 2020 | Winter storm | 2,611 | 7% | 35 h | 24 h | 55k |
| Apr 4, 2018 | No storm report | 4,927 | 14% | 21 h | 15 h | 48k |
| Oct 31, 2019 | No storm report | 3,913 | 11% | 29 h | 14 h | 44k |
| Mar 1, 2021 | No storm report | 3,297 | 9% | 21 h | 19 h | 35k |
| Jun 30, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 5,875 | 16% | 12 h | 7.5 h | 31k |
| Nov 27, 2018 | No storm report | 4,938 | 14% | 18 h | 7.5 h | 30k |
| Apr 16, 2018 | No storm report | 2,042 | 6% | 25 h | 7.2 h | 27k |
| Mar 2, 2017 | No storm report | 5,022 | 14% | 20 h | 9.5 h | 26k |
| Feb 7, 2020 | No storm report | 2,159 | 6% | 23 h | 21 h | 23k |
| Jul 16, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 5,180 | 14% | 13 h | 11 h | 22k |
| Jan 25, 2023 | No storm report | 3,694 | 10% | 17 h | 13 h | 22k |
| Jun 28, 2015 | No storm report | 3,238 | 9% | 13 h | 9.5 h | 22k |
| Aug 9, 2024 | Hurricane Debby | 3,369 | 9% | 10 h | 4.5 h | 19k |
| Feb 4, 2022 | No storm report | 3,725 | 10% | 7.8 h | 5.0 h | 17k |
| Aug 18, 2021 | Tropical Storm Fred | 1,789 | 5% | 9.0 h | – | 16k |
| May 4, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 2,501 | 7% | 18 h | 6.8 h | 15k |
| Jul 27, 2023 | Tornadoes | 1,568 | 4% | 10 h | – | 14k |
| Aug 12, 2018 | No storm report | 4,039 | 11% | 4.8 h | 5.8 h | 13k |
| Aug 7, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 1,698 | 5% | 9.8 h | – | 13k |
| Jun 12, 2016 | No storm report | 2,756 | 8% | 6.0 h | 2.0 h | 13k |
| Jul 21, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 1,773 | 5% | 17 h | – | 13k |
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 Cheshire from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Winter storm 57%
- No storm on record 24%
- Thunderstorms 11%
- Tropical storm 6.7%
- Flooding 0.7%
- Tornadoes 0.5%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Cheshire
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole New Hampshire territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public Service Co of NH | Investor Owned | 161 | 83 | 1.09 | 24.2 | 464k |
| New Hampshire Elec Coop Inc | Cooperative | 874 | 526 | 4.05 | 24.7 | 75k |
| Liberty Utilities (Granite State Electri | Investor Owned | 125 | 109 | 1.07 | 22.6 | 40k |
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
- Windham, VT 37 h
- Sullivan 13 h
- Cheshire (this county) 11 h
- Hillsborough 4.6 h
- Worcester, MA 4.0 h
- Franklin, MA 3.6 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 36,014 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 →