Power outage history
Ector County Texas
2.6hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
226th most of 240 in Texas 60% 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 Ector's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2021 was the worst well-recorded year, at 8.8 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Ector, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 15, 2021 | Winter storm | 28,468 | 18% | 3.1 d | 2.2 d | 1.1M |
| Jan 2, 2015 | Ice storm | 10,579 | 7% | 2.4 d | 2.2 d | 328k |
| Mar 13, 2019 | Windstorm | 10,115 | 6% | 13 h | 7.0 h | 48k |
| Oct 5, 2018 | No storm report | 7,019 | 4% | 12 h | 9.8 h | 41k |
| Jun 30, 2015 | Flooding | 10,350 | 7% | 6.0 h | 8.5 h | 30k |
| Aug 19, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 8,364 | 5% | 6.0 h | 7.0 h | 28k |
| Aug 28, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 5,068 | 3% | 5.2 h | 15 h | 18k |
| Oct 24, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 6,215 | 4% | 4.5 h | 6.2 h | 18k |
| Jul 21, 2015 | No storm report | 3,797 | 2% | 8.0 h | – | 17k |
| May 24, 2022 | Windstorm | 6,026 | 4% | 4.2 h | 11 h | 17k |
| May 20, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 5,554 | 4% | 5.0 h | 5.0 h | 16k |
| May 16, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 5,214 | 3% | 4.2 h | 13 h | 14k |
| Sep 9, 2019 | No storm report | 4,600 | 3% | 3.0 h | – | 12k |
| Jul 30, 2015 | No storm report | 8,956 | 6% | 2.0 h | 1.8 h | 12k |
| Aug 1, 2021 | No storm report | 2,353 | 2% | 6.0 h | – | 12k |
| Jul 4, 2019 | No storm report | 3,330 | 2% | 4.2 h | – | 11k |
| Jun 4, 2018 | No storm report | 3,931 | 3% | 3.8 h | – | 11k |
| May 31, 2021 | Flooding | 4,369 | 3% | 3.5 h | – | 10k |
| Oct 26, 2018 | No storm report | 6,579 | 4% | 1.8 h | 2.5 h | 8.9k |
| May 20, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 3,000 | 2% | 4.0 h | – | 8.9k |
| Aug 21, 2022 | No storm report | 2,329 | 1% | 4.8 h | – | 8.8k |
| Jul 21, 2025 | No storm report | 3,513 | 2% | 3.5 h | – | 8.5k |
| Aug 27, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 2,866 | 2% | 3.8 h | – | 8.4k |
| Aug 12, 2020 | No storm report | 5,246 | 3% | 1.5 h | 12 min | 7.9k |
| Sep 24, 2021 | No storm report | 8,000 | 5% | 1.5 h | 1.2 h | 7.7k |
| Sep 14, 2020 | No storm report | 5,178 | 3% | 3.0 h | 2.8 h | 7.6k |
| Apr 13, 2019 | No storm report | 3,139 | 2% | 3.2 h | – | 7.2k |
| Jul 13, 2018 | No storm report | 4,742 | 3% | 2.5 h | – | 7.2k |
| Mar 10, 2023 | No storm report | 2,682 | 2% | 2.5 h | – | 6.7k |
| Jun 1, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 2,973 | 2% | 3.0 h | – | 6.4k |
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 Ector from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Winter storm 68%
- No storm on record 18%
- Thunderstorms 8.5%
- Windstorm 4.4%
- Flooding 1.0%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Ector
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Texas territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwestern Public Service Co | Investor Owned | 441 | 151 | 1.71 | 13.9 | 224k |
| City of Goldsmith | TX | – | – | – | – | 3.9k |
| Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC | Investor Owned | 232 | 67 | 1.55 | – | – |
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 156,481 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 →