Power outage history
Albany County New York
5.8hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
31st most of 62 in New York close to 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 Albany's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2020 was the worst well-recorded year, at 16 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Albany, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 7, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 67,944 | 37% | 3.2 d | 42 h | 2.5M |
| Mar 23, 2024 | Winter storm | 44,632 | 24% | 2.3 d | 43 h | 1.2M |
| Mar 4, 2023 | Winter storm | 28,448 | 15% | 25 h | 11 h | 267k |
| Jul 16, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 17,830 | 10% | 23 h | 22 h | 200k |
| Aug 16, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 11,679 | 6% | 19 h | 18 h | 141k |
| Jun 20, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 18,506 | 10% | 17 h | 16 h | 117k |
| Feb 28, 2024 | Windstorm | 10,639 | 6% | 14 h | 9.0 h | 75k |
| Jul 27, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 8,524 | 5% | 17 h | 17 h | 75k |
| Mar 1, 2021 | Windstorm | 11,382 | 6% | 11 h | 7.5 h | 72k |
| Mar 2, 2018 | Winter storm | 6,986 | 4% | 15 h | 24 h | 63k |
| May 4, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 5,041 | 3% | 17 h | 15 h | 60k |
| Mar 14, 2023 | Winter storm | 5,583 | 3% | 16 h | 26 h | 50k |
| Mar 11, 2024 | Windstorm | 6,746 | 4% | 16 h | 30 min | 48k |
| Jan 1, 2019 | Windstorm | 12,085 | 7% | 7.2 h | 4.0 h | 46k |
| Mar 6, 2016 | No storm report | 11,685 | 6% | 5.5 h | 3.0 h | 46k |
| Feb 25, 2019 | Windstorm | 11,086 | 6% | 6.2 h | 17 h | 43k |
| Oct 31, 2019 | Windstorm | 4,325 | 2% | 14 h | – | 42k |
| May 18, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 3,197 | 2% | 15 h | – | 36k |
| Jun 30, 2019 | No storm report | 8,849 | 5% | 7.0 h | 4.2 h | 35k |
| Jun 23, 2025 | Heat | 8,451 | 5% | 6.8 h | 6.5 h | 35k |
| Jul 28, 2022 | Heat | 10,965 | 6% | 4.0 h | 48 min | 32k |
| Mar 7, 2022 | Windstorm | 5,252 | 3% | 8.8 h | 9.5 h | 31k |
| Aug 13, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 5,878 | 3% | 7.5 h | 9.8 h | 30k |
| Apr 19, 2019 | No storm report | 6,375 | 3% | 4.8 h | 3.5 h | 26k |
| Jun 12, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 7,380 | 4% | 5.2 h | 5.5 h | 25k |
| Jun 22, 2024 | No storm report | 10,255 | 6% | 3.8 h | 3.8 h | 25k |
| Jul 30, 2022 | No storm report | 7,046 | 4% | 3.5 h | 2.5 h | 21k |
| May 3, 2017 | No storm report | 2,647 | 1% | 8.0 h | – | 21k |
| Apr 19, 2022 | Winter storm | 6,313 | 3% | 5.2 h | 11 h | 20k |
| Feb 7, 2020 | Winter storm | 4,733 | 3% | 4.8 h | – | 19k |
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 Albany from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Thunderstorms 52%
- Winter storm 27%
- No storm on record 12%
- Windstorm 6.1%
- Heat 1.7%
- Flooding 0.6%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Albany
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole New York territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. | Investor Owned | 242 | 140 | 1.39 | 19.9 | 1.5M |
| Central Hudson Gas & Elec Corp | Investor Owned | 290 | 182 | 1.50 | 27.7 | 271k |
| Village of Green Island | NY | – | – | – | – | 12k |
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
- Columbia 17 h
- Greene 15 h
- Schoharie 9.8 h
- Saratoga 9.1 h
- Rensselaer 8.9 h
- Albany (this county) 5.8 h
- Schenectady 5.3 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 185,574 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 →