Power outage history
Williamsburg County South Carolina
4.6hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
32nd most of 46 in South Carolina 30% below 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 Williamsburg's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2022 was the worst well-recorded year, at 8.6 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Williamsburg, 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 8, 2016 | Hurricane Matthew | 6,579 | 31% | 6.9 d | 6.2 d | 548k |
| Sep 30, 2022 | Hurricane Ian | 7,036 | 33% | 2.1 d | 26 h | 112k |
| Sep 27, 2024 | Hurricane Helene | 6,613 | 31% | 36 h | 15 h | 66k |
| Sep 5, 2019 | Hurricane Dorian | 3,456 | 16% | 36 h | 25 h | 57k |
| Jan 9, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 4,083 | 19% | 29 h | 20 h | 46k |
| Sep 11, 2017 | No storm report | 2,671 | 12% | 26 h | 20 h | 31k |
| Aug 30, 2023 | Hurricane Idalia | 2,498 | 12% | 19 h | 7.2 h | 31k |
| Oct 23, 2017 | No storm report | 5,092 | 24% | 9.5 h | 6.0 h | 17k |
| Sep 15, 2018 | Hurricane Florence | 1,116 | 5% | 17 h | 6.0 h | 16k |
| Oct 11, 2018 | Hurricane Michael | 2,302 | 11% | 15 h | 9.2 h | 15k |
| Jan 3, 2022 | No storm report | 2,804 | 13% | 8.0 h | 6.0 h | 11k |
| Jun 25, 2025 | No storm report | 3,851 | 18% | 7.0 h | 5.5 h | 11k |
| Jan 21, 2022 | No storm report | 1,317 | 6% | 14 h | 12 h | 11k |
| Sep 2, 2016 | Hurricane Hermine | 1,590 | 7% | 11 h | 11 h | 8.9k |
| Sep 26, 2024 | No storm report | 2,460 | 11% | 4.5 h | 4.2 h | 7.5k |
| Jun 17, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 1,312 | 6% | 9.8 h | 8.0 h | 7.4k |
| Apr 19, 2019 | Tornadoes | 1,668 | 8% | 8.8 h | 7.2 h | 6.7k |
| Jun 22, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 2,668 | 12% | 7.2 h | 4.8 h | 6.5k |
| Jun 22, 2019 | No storm report | 1,563 | 7% | 9.8 h | 16 h | 5.7k |
| Oct 5, 2015 | Flooding | 4,203 | 20% | 3.8 h | 1.5 h | 5.7k |
| Oct 8, 2016 | Hurricane Matthew | 5,138 | 24% | 6.5 h | 13 h | 5.7k |
| May 31, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 819 | 4% | 8.0 h | – | 5.5k |
| May 29, 2020 | No storm report | 1,881 | 9% | 4.0 h | 1.2 h | 5.5k |
| Jan 14, 2020 | No storm report | 1,068 | 5% | 15 h | – | 5.4k |
| Jun 3, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 1,246 | 6% | 6.5 h | 6.5 h | 5.3k |
| Aug 5, 2018 | No storm report | 4,505 | 21% | 1.5 h | 1.2 h | 4.9k |
| Aug 21, 2022 | No storm report | 1,131 | 5% | 8.5 h | 6.5 h | 4.7k |
| Oct 4, 2015 | Flooding | 541 | 3% | 8.5 h | – | 4.6k |
| Mar 10, 2023 | No storm report | 2,994 | 14% | 1.5 h | 30 min | 4.5k |
| Jun 20, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 1,769 | 8% | 4.8 h | 4.0 h | 4.4k |
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 Williamsburg from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 48%
- No storm on record 40%
- Thunderstorms 11%
- Tornadoes 1.1%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Williamsburg
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duke Energy Progress | Investor Owned | 119 | 106 | 1.14 | 14.1 | 144k |
| Santee Electric Coop, Inc | Cooperative | 211 | 147 | – | 16.4 | 35k |
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
- Marion 14 h
- Williamsburg (this county) 4.6 h
- Clarendon 3.7 h
- Florence 3.6 h
- Georgetown 3.5 h
- Berkeley 2.6 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 21,455 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 →