– 0% of Essex out 0 customers out in New York

Power outage history

Essex County New York

17hours

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

8th most of 62 in New York 2.5× the national median

Worst outage on record May 5, 2018 62% of customers out · 90% back in 45 hours

Hours without power, average customer per year 17h / yr State average 4.3 h · national median 6.6 h

Major outages a year 6.1 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers

Typical time to restore 90% 4hours Median across major outages, from the peak

Longest single outage 3.0days May 4, 2018, over 1% of customers out

Outage hours on storm days 67% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here

Worst year 2018 36 hours without power, average customer

Electricity customers 23,389 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 Essex'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

2018 was the worst well-recorded year, at 36 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Essex, hours without power per customer

EssexUS median countyNew York 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
May 4, 2018	Thunderstorms	14,418	62%	3.0 d	45 h	509k
Nov 1, 2019	Flooding	9,373	40%	2.8 d	47 h	211k
Apr 19, 2022	Winter storm	7,360	31%	2.6 d	30 h	202k
Dec 16, 2022	Winter storm	12,522	54%	2.3 d	11 h	159k
Jul 16, 2024	No storm report	3,436	15%	48 h	33 h	141k
Mar 14, 2023	Winter storm	14,524	62%	32 h	9.5 h	120k
Feb 28, 2024	Windstorm	4,610	20%	2.0 d	34 h	98k
Feb 7, 2020	Winter storm	2,906	12%	2.4 d	24 h	94k
Aug 9, 2024	Hurricane Debby	6,690	29%	44 h	24 h	84k
Dec 11, 2021	Windstorm	3,977	17%	47 h	43 h	67k
Apr 4, 2018	No storm report	3,527	15%	2.8 d	41 h	61k
Oct 7, 2021	No storm report	7,359	31%	9.0 h	2.5 h	60k
May 26, 2018	No storm report	7,296	31%	8.0 h	7.5 h	56k
Aug 30, 2022	Thunderstorms	5,218	22%	29 h	27 h	54k
Apr 4, 2024	Winter storm	3,637	16%	30 h	9.8 h	48k
Jun 6, 2017	No storm report	7,023	30%	7.0 h	3.5 h	46k
Jul 30, 2015	No storm report	9,289	40%	6.8 h	6.2 h	45k
Dec 9, 2023	No storm report	7,356	31%	6.0 h	6.5 h	44k
Nov 27, 2018	Winter storm	8,364	36%	34 h	4.2 h	39k
Nov 9, 2018	No storm report	3,656	16%	14 h	16 h	35k
Nov 16, 2023	No storm report	7,371	32%	3.8 h	3.0 h	27k
Apr 7, 2022	No storm report	7,326	31%	7.2 h	7.2 h	27k
Oct 29, 2015	No storm report	2,465	11%	9.5 h	7.2 h	23k
Jul 21, 2022	No storm report	2,764	12%	7.8 h	6.8 h	21k
Nov 27, 2023	Winter storm	2,941	13%	9.8 h	6.0 h	20k
May 26, 2021	Thunderstorms	2,285	10%	20 h	19 h	20k
Oct 27, 2016	No storm report	9,139	39%	5.2 h	3.2 h	19k
Feb 25, 2017	Thunderstorms	2,305	10%	13 h	7.0 h	18k
Jul 14, 2023	Flooding	1,103	5%	15 h	–	15k
Mar 10, 2024	Winter storm	2,620	11%	14 h	8.0 h	15k

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

No storm on record 33%
Winter storm 27%
Thunderstorms 22%
Flooding 8.0%
Windstorm 7.2%
Tropical storm 3.2%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Essex

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
New York State Elec & Gas Corp	Investor Owned	302	146	1.85	22.6	794k
Lake Placid Village, Inc	NY	–	–	–	6.0	81k

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

Hamilton 99 h
Warren 18 h
Essex (this county) 17 h
Washington 11 h
Addison, VT 9.5 h
Franklin 6.4 h
Clinton 4.3 h
Chittenden, VT 2.3 h

Across New York

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All New York 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 23,389 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 →