Power Outages by State: Average Outage Hours
Quick answer: your state's outage hours decide whether a generator for house power outage backup is a convenience or a necessity. Louisiana and Mississippi average 50+ outage hours a year; Washington and Arizona under 5. Check your state below before sizing a generator for house power outage protection.
How long your house goes dark in a typical year depends mostly on where you live. Power outage totals hit hardest in the Southeast: a homeowner in South Carolina averaged over 52 hours without power in 2024; one in Nevada averaged under 3. The federal government tracks outage minutes in a metric called SAIDI, and the numbers should shape your backup-power decision more than any sales pitch.
What SAIDI means
SAIDI (System Average Interruption Duration Index) is the average number of outage minutes per customer in a year, including major weather events like hurricanes and ice storms. The US average in 2024 was 611 minutes, a little over 10 hours. One bad storm year can distort a state's number: South Carolina's 2024 spike, for example, came from Hurricane Helene.
Data below is from the US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Annual Table 11.3 (2024, with major events included).
States where a generator for house power outage backup matters most
| Rank | State | 2024 outage per customer | In hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Carolina | 3,137 min | 52.3 |
| 2 | Maine | 1,749 min | 29.1 |
| 3 | North Carolina | 1,441 min | 24.0 |
| 4 | Florida | 1,322 min | 22.0 |
| 5 | Texas | 1,271 min | 21.2 |
| 6 | Georgia | 1,229 min | 20.5 |
| 7 | West Virginia | 1,166 min | 19.4 |
| 8 | New Hampshire | 923 min | 15.4 |
| 9 | Louisiana | 728 min | 12.1 |
| 10 | Vermont | 697 min | 11.6 |
All states, 2024
| State | Minutes | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| South Carolina | 3137 | 52.3 |
| Maine | 1749 | 29.1 |
| North Carolina | 1441 | 24.0 |
| Florida | 1322 | 22.0 |
| Texas | 1271 | 21.2 |
| Georgia | 1229 | 20.5 |
| West Virginia | 1166 | 19.4 |
| New Hampshire | 923 | 15.4 |
| Louisiana | 728 | 12.1 |
| Vermont | 697 | 11.6 |
| Kentucky | 648 | 10.8 |
| Nebraska | 642 | 10.7 |
| Washington | 624 | 10.4 |
| Mississippi | 567 | 9.5 |
| Oregon | 591 | 9.9 |
| Arkansas | 509 | 8.5 |
| Ohio | 511 | 8.5 |
| Michigan | 470 | 7.8 |
| Virginia | 418 | 7.0 |
| Pennsylvania | 336 | 5.6 |
| Montana | 352 | 5.9 |
| Alaska | 327 | 5.5 |
| Hawaii | 321 | 5.3 |
| Indiana | 312 | 5.2 |
| California | 280 | 4.7 |
| Alabama | 279 | 4.7 |
| New Mexico | 279 | 4.6 |
| Tennessee | 279 | 4.6 |
| Kansas | 286 | 4.8 |
| Oklahoma | 271 | 4.5 |
| Wisconsin | 266 | 4.4 |
| Colorado | 255 | 4.3 |
| Missouri | 224 | 3.7 |
| New York | 220 | 3.7 |
| Minnesota | 220 | 3.7 |
| Idaho | 233 | 3.9 |
| Iowa | 167 | 2.8 |
| New Jersey | 174 | 2.9 |
| Illinois | 157 | 2.6 |
| Nevada | 159 | 2.6 |
| Wyoming | 138 | 2.3 |
| Connecticut | 154 | 2.6 |
| Utah | 120 | 2.0 |
| Maryland | 118 | 2.0 |
| Delaware | 116 | 1.9 |
| Rhode Island | 104 | 1.7 |
| Massachusetts | 102 | 1.7 |
| North Dakota | 99 | 1.7 |
| Arizona | 88 | 1.5 |
| South Dakota | 85 | 1.4 |
| District of Columbia | 33 | 0.5 |
What outage hours mean for your generator for house power outage decision
In the top ten states, the question is not whether to buy an outage backup generator but what kind. Hurricane-belt states (SC, NC, FL, GA, LA, MS, TX) face multi-day power outages where a standby generator on natural gas earns its cost quickly; see our standby vs portable comparison. Northern New England (ME, NH, VT) deals with ice-storm outages that snap distribution lines; fuel storage matters more there because refueling mid-storm is hard.
In states averaging under 5 hours a year, a portable generator plus a transfer switch covers the realistic worst case for a fraction of a standby install. Our generator size calculator works the same either way: your appliance list decides the watts.
State averages also hide local outage reality. Rural feeders and heavily-wooded suburbs outperform the state average by a wide margin; downtown cores do better. If your street logs an outage every storm season, trust your street over your state's number.
FAQ
Does the outage data include hurricanes? The figures above include major events, which is the right lens for buying decisions. Utilities also report a without-major-events figure that is much lower.
Why does South Carolina top the 2024 power outage ranking? Hurricane Helene. Its 2023 figure was around 167 minutes. Single storm years swing state numbers heavily, which is why multi-year outage trends matter more than any one year.
Where does this data come from? Utility reports compiled by the US Energy Information Administration, published in the Electric Power Annual. We reproduce it with attribution; check their table for revisions.
Sources
- EIA Electric Power Annual, Table 11.3 - SAIDI by state
- EIA Today in Energy - US electricity customers averaged seven hours of interruptions
Related: turn your outage risk into a wattage number with the generator size calculator, or compare specific whole house generators that cover those hours.