Power outage history
Benton County Washington
1.3hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
29th most of 31 in Washington 81% 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 Benton's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2023 was the worst well-recorded year, at 2.1 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Benton, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 13, 2023 | No storm report | 7,794 | 10% | 6.0 h | 5.0 h | 29k |
| Apr 17, 2021 | No storm report | 4,072 | 5% | 7.2 h | 7.2 h | 29k |
| Mar 31, 2023 | No storm report | 4,130 | 5% | 6.8 h | 4.2 h | 27k |
| Feb 20, 2023 | Windstorm | 17,777 | 22% | 3.8 h | 1.2 h | 22k |
| Apr 21, 2023 | No storm report | 4,126 | 5% | 4.2 h | 4.5 h | 18k |
| Feb 20, 2021 | No storm report | 2,699 | 3% | 6.5 h | – | 17k |
| Sep 7, 2020 | Wildfire | 2,967 | 4% | 10 h | – | 16k |
| May 30, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 2,443 | 3% | 8.2 h | – | 13k |
| Nov 4, 2022 | Windstorm | 2,842 | 4% | 7.0 h | – | 13k |
| Jun 2, 2024 | No storm report | 5,820 | 7% | 2.2 h | 3.2 h | 12k |
| Sep 7, 2019 | No storm report | 5,345 | 7% | 2.5 h | 2.0 h | 12k |
| Jul 29, 2022 | Heat | 11,998 | 15% | 1.2 h | 12 min | 9.8k |
| Apr 11, 2022 | No storm report | 5,677 | 7% | 2.0 h | 1.8 h | 9.3k |
| Dec 22, 2022 | Winter storm | 3,093 | 4% | 2.8 h | – | 8.2k |
| Feb 9, 2022 | No storm report | 7,616 | 9% | 1.2 h | 30 min | 7.8k |
| Nov 8, 2020 | No storm report | 5,530 | 7% | 1.5 h | 1.8 h | 7.8k |
| Dec 13, 2025 | No storm report | 1,303 | 2% | 6.0 h | – | 7.5k |
| Sep 28, 2025 | No storm report | 1,020 | 1% | 7.2 h | – | 7.4k |
| Dec 24, 2023 | No storm report | 2,883 | 4% | 2.5 h | – | 7.2k |
| Jan 7, 2023 | No storm report | 3,469 | 4% | 1.8 h | – | 5.5k |
| Jun 1, 2019 | No storm report | 1,563 | 2% | 4.0 h | – | 4.1k |
| Oct 21, 2022 | No storm report | 2,503 | 3% | 2.0 h | – | 3.8k |
| Sep 19, 2020 | No storm report | 969 | 1% | 3.8 h | – | 3.6k |
| Jan 3, 2023 | No storm report | 2,747 | 3% | 1.8 h | – | 3.6k |
| Jun 17, 2021 | No storm report | 1,145 | 1% | 2.8 h | – | 3.1k |
| Mar 28, 2021 | Windstorm | 1,084 | 1% | 3.0 h | – | 3.1k |
| Jun 28, 2024 | No storm report | 2,412 | 3% | 1.2 h | – | 3.0k |
| Aug 29, 2022 | No storm report | 5,344 | 7% | 48 min | 12 min | 2.9k |
| Feb 26, 2023 | No storm report | 1,953 | 2% | 2.0 h | – | 2.9k |
| May 7, 2022 | No storm report | 942 | 1% | 3.0 h | – | 2.8k |
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 Benton from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 76%
- Windstorm 10%
- Wildfire 4.4%
- Thunderstorms 3.7%
- Heat 3.5%
- Winter storm 2.3%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Benton
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Washington territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PacifiCorp | Investor Owned | 103 | 58 | 0.56 | 14.3 | 115k |
| PUD No 1 of Benton County | Political Subdivision | 36 | 36 | 0.28 | 9.1 | 51k |
| City of Richland | Municipal | 39 | 39 | 0.38 | 10.0 | 26k |
| Benton Rural Electric Assn | Cooperative | 304 | 156 | 0.95 | 9.7 | 14k |
| PUD No 1 of Klickitat County | Political Subdivision | 272 | 272 | 0.92 | 12.6 | 12k |
| Bonneville 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.
Next door
Neighbouring counties
- Umatilla, OR 3.9 h
- Yakima 2.5 h
- Morrow, OR 2.4 h
- Walla Walla 2.3 h
- Benton (this county) 1.3 h
- Klickitat 0.6 h
- Franklin 0.4 h
- Grant 0.3 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 80,351 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 →