Power outage history
Barnwell County South Carolina
8.9hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
20th most of 46 in South Carolina 1.4× 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 Barnwell's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2024 was the worst well-recorded year, at 35 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Barnwell, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 27, 2024 | Hurricane Helene | 6,437 | 61% | 6.7 d | 25 h | 349k |
| Apr 13, 2020 | Tornadoes | 7,897 | 74% | 45 h | 15 h | 96k |
| Sep 11, 2017 | Hurricane Irma | 5,426 | 51% | 36 h | 14 h | 41k |
| Oct 11, 2018 | Hurricane Michael | 3,500 | 33% | 31 h | 11 h | 27k |
| Oct 8, 2016 | Hurricane Matthew | 4,839 | 46% | 13 h | 7.5 h | 21k |
| May 6, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 4,125 | 39% | 16 h | 10 h | 20k |
| Jun 23, 2018 | No storm report | 2,049 | 19% | 8.0 h | 5.5 h | 16k |
| Jun 7, 2023 | No storm report | 946 | 9% | 8.0 h | 7.2 h | 6.6k |
| May 12, 2025 | No storm report | 2,222 | 21% | 3.5 h | 2.0 h | 6.5k |
| Oct 8, 2016 | Hurricane Matthew | 784 | 7% | 17 h | 18 h | 6.5k |
| Apr 15, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 1,422 | 13% | 6.5 h | 18 h | 5.6k |
| Oct 30, 2021 | No storm report | 874 | 8% | 6.2 h | 7.2 h | 5.5k |
| Jan 3, 2022 | Windstorm | 1,043 | 10% | 15 h | 9.5 h | 5.4k |
| Jun 17, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 1,229 | 12% | 5.5 h | 1.8 h | 5.3k |
| Sep 20, 2020 | No storm report | 2,060 | 19% | 2.2 h | 2.2 h | 4.6k |
| Oct 5, 2024 | No storm report | 423 | 4% | 9.8 h | – | 4.1k |
| Nov 30, 2024 | No storm report | 1,732 | 16% | 3.0 h | 8.5 h | 4.0k |
| Jul 21, 2023 | No storm report | 1,710 | 16% | 2.2 h | 2.8 h | 3.8k |
| Jul 13, 2022 | No storm report | 3,854 | 36% | 1.2 h | 1.0 h | 3.8k |
| Jul 8, 2021 | Hurricane Elsa | 2,047 | 19% | 2.8 h | 2.0 h | 3.8k |
| Jun 27, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 856 | 8% | 7.2 h | 5.2 h | 3.8k |
| Aug 30, 2023 | Hurricane Idalia | 488 | 5% | 15 h | – | 3.7k |
| Aug 27, 2023 | No storm report | 968 | 9% | 4.5 h | 3.8 h | 3.3k |
| Jun 7, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 1,782 | 17% | 3.2 h | 48 min | 3.2k |
| Jun 11, 2018 | No storm report | 505 | 5% | 8.8 h | – | 3.2k |
| Jan 21, 2019 | No storm report | 2,874 | 27% | 1.5 h | 30 min | 3.1k |
| Jun 14, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 1,508 | 14% | 6.0 h | 5.2 h | 2.9k |
| Jul 17, 2024 | No storm report | 3,259 | 31% | 48 min | 30 min | 2.4k |
| May 14, 2025 | No storm report | 1,240 | 12% | 2.0 h | 8.0 h | 2.3k |
| May 5, 2016 | No storm report | 3,741 | 35% | 1.2 h | 48 min | 2.3k |
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 Barnwell from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 58%
- No storm on record 21%
- Tornadoes 14%
- Thunderstorms 6.4%
- Windstorm 1.1%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Barnwell
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole South Carolina territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dominion Energy South Carolina, Inc | Investor Owned | 131 | 81 | 1.34 | 16.4 | 713k |
| Aiken Electric Coop Inc | Cooperative | 189 | 119 | – | 17.5 | 51k |
| Edisto Electric Coop, Inc | Cooperative | 236 | 236 | – | 19.0 | 16k |
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
- Aiken 22 h
- Allendale 13 h
- Burke, GA 11 h
- Barnwell (this county) 8.9 h
- Bamberg 7.8 h
- Orangeburg 3.0 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 10,628 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 →