Power outage history
Lincoln County South Dakota
2.2hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
30th most of 32 in South Dakota 67% 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 Lincoln's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2019 was the worst well-recorded year, at 3.8 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Lincoln, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 28, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 3,006 | 10% | 29 h | 28 h | 50k |
| Jul 28, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 3,021 | 10% | 36 h | 36 h | 24k |
| Sep 10, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 5,725 | 18% | 6.8 h | 4.5 h | 18k |
| Dec 18, 2023 | No storm report | 7,969 | 25% | 3.0 h | 3.0 h | 14k |
| Aug 15, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 2,904 | 9% | 5.2 h | 4.0 h | 12k |
| Mar 1, 2025 | Windstorm | 3,087 | 10% | 3.5 h | 4.2 h | 10k |
| Jul 5, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 3,986 | 13% | 3.2 h | 3.0 h | 8.8k |
| May 30, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 3,027 | 10% | 5.5 h | 1.8 h | 8.4k |
| Oct 23, 2022 | Windstorm | 582 | 2% | 14 h | – | 7.8k |
| Sep 8, 2023 | No storm report | 12,505 | 40% | 30 min | 30 min | 6.3k |
| Apr 25, 2024 | No storm report | 14,526 | 46% | 1.0 h | 30 min | 6.0k |
| Jul 14, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 1,739 | 6% | 4.2 h | 1.0 h | 4.8k |
| Apr 6, 2024 | No storm report | 3,020 | 10% | 2.5 h | 2.2 h | 4.1k |
| Dec 18, 2020 | No storm report | 2,274 | 7% | 1.8 h | 1.8 h | 4.0k |
| Jun 19, 2020 | No storm report | 1,221 | 4% | 3.0 h | – | 3.7k |
| Jun 11, 2025 | No storm report | 1,308 | 4% | 2.5 h | – | 3.3k |
| Oct 13, 2022 | No storm report | 2,984 | 9% | 2.0 h | 1.8 h | 3.0k |
| Jun 17, 2024 | No storm report | 618 | 2% | 4.2 h | – | 2.6k |
| Jan 18, 2020 | Winter storm | 7,113 | 23% | 30 min | 12 min | 2.4k |
| Sep 24, 2020 | No storm report | 326 | 1% | 6.5 h | – | 2.1k |
| Jun 28, 2023 | No storm report | 970 | 3% | 2.2 h | – | 2.0k |
| Jun 19, 2023 | No storm report | 1,487 | 5% | 2.0 h | – | 2.0k |
| Jun 3, 2021 | No storm report | 2,529 | 8% | 48 min | 48 min | 1.9k |
| Jun 9, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 1,160 | 4% | 2.5 h | – | 1.9k |
| May 7, 2020 | No storm report | 1,224 | 4% | 1.5 h | – | 1.8k |
| Nov 22, 2021 | No storm report | 2,445 | 8% | 48 min | 48 min | 1.8k |
| Apr 25, 2021 | No storm report | 1,685 | 5% | 1.0 h | 1.0 h | 1.7k |
| Feb 27, 2020 | No storm report | 1,296 | 4% | 1.2 h | – | 1.6k |
| Aug 16, 2015 | No storm report | 459 | 1% | 3.5 h | – | 1.6k |
| Jul 17, 2019 | Flooding | 794 | 3% | 2.0 h | – | 1.6k |
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 Lincoln from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Thunderstorms 54%
- No storm on record 35%
- Windstorm 7.9%
- Flooding 1.7%
- Winter storm 1.0%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Lincoln
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole South Dakota territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northern States Power Co - Minnesota | Investor Owned | 160 | 58 | 0.88 | 13.1 | 94k |
| Clay-Union Electric Corp | SD | – | – | – | 11.6 | 53k |
| Southeastern Electric Coop Inc | Cooperative | 24 | 24 | – | 13.0 | 21k |
| City of Beresford | SD | – | – | – | 13.7 | 9.8k |
| MidAmerican Energy Co | Investor Owned | 399 | 65 | 0.93 | 8.9 | 4.2k |
| WAPA-- Western Area Power Administration | Federal | – | – | – | – | – |
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.
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 31,561 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 →