Power Out Map
– 0% of Cape May out 0 customers out in New Jersey

Power outage history

Cape May County New Jersey

5.1hours

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

9th most of 21 in New Jersey 23% below the national median

Worst outage on record Hurricane Isaias · Aug 4, 2020 47% of customers out · 90% back in 2.2 days
Hours without power, average customer per year 5.1h / yr State average 5.3 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 1.1 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 2hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 3.6days Hurricane Isaias, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 55% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2020 18 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 56,097 ORNL customer model · 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 Cape May'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

2020 was the worst well-recorded year, at 18 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Cape May, hours without power per customer

Cape MayUS median countyNew Jersey average
0 10 20 30 4.4 ’15 24 ’16 2.6 ’17 3.4 ’18 2.3 ’19 18 ’20 1.9 ’21 1.6 ’22 9.4 ’23 1.8 ’24 2.6 ’25 US 6.6 NJ 5.3

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
Aug 4, 2020 Hurricane Isaias 26,404 47% 3.6 d 2.2 d 732k
Jan 22, 2016 Winter storm 24,778 44% 43 h 30 h 616k
Jun 21, 2016 Thunderstorms 37,421 67% 33 h 24 h 424k
Jul 7, 2023 No storm report 24,403 44% 40 h 39 h 421k
Apr 13, 2020 Windstorm 17,667 31% 28 h 17 h 159k
Apr 1, 2016 No storm report 18,500 33% 3.2 h 2.5 h 39k
Jun 6, 2015 Thunderstorms 12,952 23% 5.5 h 1.8 h 33k
Jun 23, 2015 Thunderstorms 18,025 32% 3.8 h 2.2 h 27k
Mar 2, 2018 Windstorm 3,138 6% 13 h 9.0 h 21k
Jun 23, 2017 Tropical Storm Cindy 7,695 14% 3.8 h 3.2 h 20k
Aug 30, 2021 No storm report 9,482 17% 2.2 h 1.2 h 19k
Jul 20, 2018 No storm report 7,180 13% 2.5 h 2.5 h 16k

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.

0% 25% 50% 75% 100% peak+24h+48h+72h+96h half back by +4h 90% by +4h

When it happens

The outage clock

Customer-hours out by month (rings, January innermost) and local hour, 2018–2025.

00061218 Jan inside

What was happening

Weather behind the outages

Each outage is matched to NOAA storm reports for Cape May from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.

  • No storm on record 45%
  • Tropical storm 42%
  • Windstorm 12%
  • Thunderstorms 0.7%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Cape May

As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole New Jersey territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.

Utility Type Outage min / yr Excl. major storms Outages / yr Residential ¢/kWh Customers
Atlantic City Electric Co Investor Owned 80 55 0.73 25.8 509k

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

Across New Jersey

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All New Jersey 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 56,097 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 →