Saturday, June 8, 2024 New research into last year’s power outages suggests Washington could face blackout disruptions this summer. Energy experts at Texas Electricity Ratings analyzed the U.S.
Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) 2023 Electric Disturbance Events Annual Summaries data to pinpoint states most at risk for disruptions this summer. They focused on outages from May to August, considering each outage’s frequency and average duration. Last summer, Washington experienced six outages, totaling four hours and seven minutes, with an average duration of just 41 minutes.
King County and Skagit County were the primary areas affected, with most incidents caused by physical attacks. Washington’s investor-owned utilities, like Puget Sound Energy, are working to prevent outages by managing vegetation around power lines. States That Faced the Worst Outages Last Summer Michigan, which experienced ten outages last summer, should brace for potential increases in disruptions this year.
With a total disruption time exceeding 90 hours, each outage lasted around ten hours and nine minutes on average. Primarily concentrated in Macomb County and Eaton County, these outages impacted nearly one million customers, mainly due to severe weather events. Texas ranks second, having experienced a total of nine outages last summer.
These disruptions led to a total outage time of approximately 71 and a half hours, with each lasting just under eight hours on average. System malfunction.
