Power Out Map
– 0% of Essex out 0 customers out in Virginia

Power outage history

Essex County Virginia

11hours

without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025

65th most of 123 in Virginia 1.7× the national median

Worst outage on record Hurricane Michael · Oct 11, 2018 100% of customers out · 90% back in 47 hours
Hours without power, average customer per year 11h / yr State average 8.7 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 4.3 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 2hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 3.2days Hurricane Michael, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 69% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2018 40 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 5,226 ORNL customer model · 8 well-covered years

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 Essex's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.

20152016201720182019202020212022202320242025
0%100% of customers out

Year by year

Hours in the dark, per customer

2018 was the worst well-recorded year, at 40 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Essex, hours without power per customer

EssexUS median countyVirginia average
0 10 20 30 4.5 ’15 11 ’16 9.9 ’17 40 ’18 4.2 ’19 7.2 ’20 8.0 ’21 6.6 ’22 5.5 ’23 7.4 ’24 7.9 ’25 VA 8.7 US 6.6

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 11, 2018 Hurricane Michael 5,226 100% 3.2 d 47 h 121k
Mar 2, 2018 Windstorm 3,532 68% 2.6 d 1.8 h 38k
Feb 13, 2021 Ice storm 2,689 51% 2.1 d 1.2 h 29k
May 14, 2018 Thunderstorms 3,318 63% 36 h 12 h 26k
Feb 24, 2016 Tornadoes 1,620 31% 28 h 26 h 20k
Jun 26, 2024 Thunderstorms 1,073 21% 22 h 21 h 14k
Jun 19, 2025 Thunderstorms 3,090 59% 11 h 2.8 h 11k
Apr 3, 2016 No storm report 1,829 35% 13 h 9.2 h 10k
Jul 28, 2020 Thunderstorms 5,226 100% 6.8 h 1.5 h 8.1k
Jul 28, 2016 Thunderstorms 1,826 35% 16 h 3.8 h 7.9k
Dec 9, 2017 Winter storm 718 14% 33 h 23 h 7.8k
Feb 7, 2020 No storm report 2,222 43% 19 h 7.0 h 7.2k

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.

0% 25% 50% 75% 100% peak+24h+48h+72h+96h half back by +4h 90% by +10h

When it happens

The outage clock

Customer-hours out by month (rings, January innermost) and local hour, 2018–2025.

00061218 Jan inside

What was happening

Weather behind the outages

Each outage is matched to NOAA storm reports for Essex from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.

  • No storm on record 32%
  • Tropical storm 30%
  • Thunderstorms 20%
  • Windstorm 9.3%
  • Ice storm 7.0%
  • Flooding 0.9%
  • Winter storm 0.8%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Essex

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
Rappahannock Electric Coop Cooperative 428 220 2.50 15.5 173k

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

Across Virginia

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All Virginia counties →

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 5,226 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 →