Power outage history
Alexandria City Virginia
4.9hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
108th most of 123 in Virginia 26% 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 Alexandria's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2025 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.
Alexandria, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2, 2018 | No storm report | 13,858 | 21% | 2.6 d | 39 h | 379k |
| May 16, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 17,839 | 27% | 39 h | 30 h | 280k |
| Jul 29, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 17,627 | 26% | 27 h | 22 h | 164k |
| Jun 19, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 9,071 | 14% | 33 h | 31 h | 98k |
| May 22, 2022 | No storm report | 8,556 | 13% | 19 h | 7.2 h | 65k |
| Jan 3, 2022 | Winter storm | 4,525 | 7% | 31 h | 24 h | 59k |
| Apr 1, 2023 | Windstorm | 7,560 | 11% | 7.5 h | 5.5 h | 40k |
| Jul 22, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 6,628 | 10% | 12 h | 11 h | 37k |
| May 23, 2019 | No storm report | 10,062 | 15% | 19 h | 9.5 h | 36k |
| Jul 1, 2015 | No storm report | 6,171 | 9% | 10 h | 8.5 h | 31k |
| Aug 25, 2023 | No storm report | 4,666 | 7% | 7.2 h | 6.2 h | 30k |
| Oct 17, 2019 | No storm report | 2,654 | 4% | 9.8 h | – | 25k |
| Oct 23, 2020 | No storm report | 12,773 | 19% | 3.5 h | 1.0 h | 24k |
| Oct 31, 2019 | No storm report | 3,961 | 6% | 7.2 h | 1.2 h | 24k |
| Feb 16, 2025 | Windstorm | 7,769 | 12% | 7.5 h | 6.8 h | 23k |
| Feb 4, 2023 | No storm report | 3,999 | 6% | 15 h | 16 h | 21k |
| May 26, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 4,011 | 6% | 7.2 h | 1.2 h | 21k |
| Jun 20, 2015 | Flooding | 18,174 | 27% | 2.0 h | 1.8 h | 20k |
| Jul 17, 2018 | Flooding | 5,050 | 8% | 5.5 h | 3.8 h | 17k |
| Jul 3, 2018 | No storm report | 6,490 | 10% | 3.0 h | 3.0 h | 16k |
| Feb 12, 2017 | Windstorm | 7,163 | 11% | 4.8 h | 4.2 h | 14k |
| Feb 25, 2019 | Windstorm | 3,675 | 5% | 3.8 h | 48 min | 14k |
| Aug 12, 2019 | No storm report | 9,196 | 14% | 2.5 h | 2.2 h | 14k |
| Jun 3, 2018 | No storm report | 3,684 | 5% | 3.5 h | 1.8 h | 13k |
| Jun 5, 2020 | No storm report | 3,873 | 6% | 6.8 h | 4.0 h | 13k |
| Aug 7, 2023 | No storm report | 2,365 | 4% | 7.0 h | – | 12k |
| May 31, 2025 | No storm report | 3,634 | 5% | 3.5 h | 3.0 h | 11k |
| Apr 30, 2021 | No storm report | 5,070 | 8% | 6.0 h | 3.2 h | 10k |
| Dec 28, 2016 | No storm report | 1,494 | 2% | 7.2 h | – | 10k |
| Jan 10, 2016 | No storm report | 3,086 | 5% | 4.0 h | – | 10k |
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 Alexandria from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 56%
- Thunderstorms 34%
- Windstorm 4.1%
- Winter storm 3.6%
- Flooding 1.8%
- Heat 0.8%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Alexandria
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Virginia territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virginia Electric & Power Co | Investor Owned | 307 | 144 | 1.78 | 15.2 | 2.4M |
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
- Alexandria (this county) 4.9 h
- Arlington 4.5 h
- Fairfax 3.5 h
- Prince George's, MD 3.2 h
- District of Columbia, DC 2.1 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 67,166 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 →