It also requires careful planning to respond quickly to equipment failures, weather-related disruptions, cybersecurity attacks, and changing demand patterns. Per-type averages use the same global MAX(year) reliability cohort as state and utility pages, not a mixed per-utility latest year. SAIFI (System Average Interruption Frequency Index) counts how many times per year the average customer experiences a power outage. SAIDI (System Average Interruption Duration Index) measures the total minutes per year the average customer is without power. Select a U.S. state and utility type to place its SAIDI/SAIFI against the customer-weighted national average from 918 EIA Form 861 reporters. On March 12, 2026, the DOE’s Office of Electricity announced an approximate $1.9 billion to catalyze electricity infrastructure investments through the Speed to Power through Accelerated Reconductoring and other Key Advanced Transmission Technology Upgrades (SPARK) funding opportunity.

Inconsistent definitions mean that some outages classified as supply-related may actually occur on distribution systems. However, variation from state-to-state and utility-to-utility can be significant, so be sure to check out our full dashboard to explore reliability in your state or utility. This reality is already all too familiar to customers, with outages caused by these “major events” reaching a decadal high in 2024.

Reliable electricity is important because it powers homes, hospitals, manufacturers, data centers, transportation and logistics systems, and nearly every modern business. When outages occur, operators isolate the affected areas, work to restore service, and coordinate field crews to reduce https://bizexclusivetoday.com/modern-technologies-in-trading-current-trends-and-advantages.html outage duration. Reliable energy depends on well-maintained infrastructure, sufficient generation capacity, and efficient grid operations. It reflects how well utilities generate, transmit, and distribute electricity while minimizing service interruptions. Energy reliability is the ability of an electric power system to consistently deliver electricity when and where it’s needed. Comparator figures are computed directly from EIA Form 861 reliability files (same MAX(year) cohort as state and utility pages).

Averages By Utility Type (this dataset)

As utilities ask consumers to pay more for their investments amid soaring bills, data-backed and informed decisions matter now more than ever. Overall, clean energy deployments have supported grid reliability through day-to-day operations and numerous extreme storms. Utilities in more than half of states do not conduct comprehensive integrated system planning that includes the distribution system. However, when we retroactively evaluate the average duration of customer outages over the past 10-year period, we see that many customers do not experience that standard — especially when incorporating major events.

Special Reports

Compare specific utilities on our SAIDI/SAIFI guide. Southeast utilities contend with hurricane seasons that can spike annual outage minutes dramatically. If you’re choosing between neighborhoods or considering relocating, checking the local utility’s reliability record is worth 5 minutes of research.

Download our Grid Operator’s Guide to DERMS

Ideally, planners would sequence investments by prioritizing lower-cost actions first and ensure that higher-cost measures are tightly targeted to pesistent, demonstrated sources of unreliability. Recent public policy discourse has focused on the impact of load growth on grid reliability, particularly from data centers, and some policies go as far as trying to prescribe certain types of generators in the name of meeting reliability needs. RMI developed a new dashboard, leveraging data reported annually to the Energy Information Administration, to showcase the differences in electric reliability across https://northfloridahouse.com/personalized-learning-the-future-of-adaptive-education.html utilities in the United States. RMI’s new grid Reliability Dashboard showcases key trends in electric reliability over the past decade and can help grid planners target solutions to reduce customer outages. In 2012, we created Form EIA-861S to reduce respondent burden and to increase our processing efficiency; that year, about 1,100 utilities initially reported on this form instead of Form EIA-861. Form EIA-861, Annual Electric Power Industry Report, and Form EIA-861S (the shortform) collect data from distribution utilities and power marketers of electricity.

• Comprehensive data summaries, comparisons, analysis, and projections integrated across all energy sources.
• From our new Reliability Dashboard on the Utility Transition Hub, we can see that over the past decade, US electricity customers experienced, on average, about six hours without power annually.
• RMI developed a new dashboard, leveraging data reported annually to the Energy Information Administration, to showcase the differences in electric reliability across utilities in the United States.
• Some utilities deliver power with near-perfect consistency, while others leave customers in the dark for hours each year.
• Florida utilities average 145 SAIDI minutes with MED but only 78 without, showing how much major events drive their numbers.
• However, when we retroactively evaluate the average duration of customer outages over the past 10-year period, we see that many customers do not experience that standard — especially when incorporating major events.

How to Improve Energy Reliability in 7 Steps

• For decision support, the pre-move reliability guide and insurance interaction guide walk through how outage history affects relocation and homeowner-policy decisions.
• In 2012, we created Form EIA-861S to reduce respondent burden and to increase our processing efficiency; that year, about 1,100 utilities initially reported on this form instead of Form EIA-861.
• See our Terms of Use for what reuse is permitted.
• Utilities in more than half of states do not conduct comprehensive integrated system planning that includes the distribution system.

CAIDI tracks the average time it took electric providers to restore power to customers each year, or put differently, how long the average customer was without power when there was an outage. Yet public policy is currently focused on rising energy demand, which does not address distribution system needs and extreme weather risks. Over the past decade, extreme weather and failures on the distribution system — the lower-voltage wires connecting homes and businesses to the bulk electric grid — have been the primary causes of customer outages nationwide. The utility ownership guide explains why IOUs, co-ops, and municipals show systematically different reliability profiles. Start with the SAIDI/SAIFI metric guide to read reliability data correctly, then use the utility directory to look up your provider’s most recent EIA-861 filing. In the 2023 EIA Form 861 filing, mean SAIDI among filers was 374 minutes for investor-owned utilities, 144.7 for municipals, and 474.4 for cooperatives (utility averages, not customer-weighted).

• From 2014 to 2024, 57% of respondents separated outages that were due to loss of supply, and in the past five years, those outages represented less than 10% of the duration of outages the average customer experienced.
• Type rows are unweighted utility means among filers with SAIDI and SAIFI; customer counts sum the filing’s customer field.
• Treat outliers as context, then check the utility that actually serves your meter.
• Most utility regulators set reliability performance targets and require periodic reporting on outage metrics.

Analysis and Projections

Energy Information Administration (EIA), electric utilities publish SAIDI and SAIFI reliability metrics in Form 861 annual filings. See our Terms of Use for what reuse is permitted. Live EIA Form 861 state averages. State averages hide within-state spread.

Data Sources and Methodology

Energy Information Administration, public power utilities are consistently more reliable than other types of electric utilities. It provides a forward-looking snapshot of resource adequacy that is tied to electricity supplies, demand, and forecasted generation development, systematically exploring a range https://bestchicago.net/quantum-ai-an-innovative-trading-platform-built-on-advanced-algorithms.html of dimensions that can be compared across regions. As a result, while utilities plan to have enough power plants to limit bulk system outages to an acceptable resource adequacy standard, the same is not applied to the distribution system, leading to worse outcomes for customers. Although planned investments achieve modeled targets, in reality, customer outages can exceed those targets due to failures on the distribution system and extreme weather. In other words, for over 90% of the time that customers were experiencing outages, their utilities did not attribute these outages to supply-side shortfalls, and instead attributed them to distribution system failures.