Florida power outage rates are below national average
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
If you've lived in Florida long enough, chances are you've experienced a power outage — most likely from a hurricane, but also from a transformer explosion or human error.
Yes, but: Despite Florida's vulnerability to hurricanes, the rest of the U.S. experiences more hours of electrical outages on average, according to the latest available data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
By the numbers: The average Florida electricity customer experienced 1.4 hours of power outages in 2021 — down from 3.2 in 2020 and 1.5 in 2013.
- The average U.S. electricity customer experienced 7.3 hours of power outages in 2021 — down from 8.2 in 2020, but more than double 2013's rate.
- The nationwide average of outage hours has been trending upward over the last several years, beginning with a notable spike in 2017 driven by outages following Hurricane Irma.
Why it matters: Electricity outages stand to become more common as extreme weather events — many driven by climate change — wreak havoc on the country's aging power infrastructure.
- While some are short-lived annoyances, others are widespread events. Either can become deadly during periods of extreme temperatures or for those who depend on medical equipment.
- Hurricane Idalia, which made landfall Wednesday near Florida's Big Bend, left over 215,000 customers without power.
Zoom in: Nationwide numbers in 2021 were driven in large part by widespread power outages in Texas amid severe winter weather and by broad outages across Louisiana and several other states following Hurricane Ida.
- The average Louisiana electricity customer experienced a staggering 80.2 hours of downtime in 2021, trailed by Oregon (24.8 hours) and Texas (19.6 hours).
- Washington, D.C. (0.9), Delaware (1.1) and Florida customers experienced the fewest hours of downtime.
What's next: Efforts to modernize the grid and reduce outages are underway.
- The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocated $13 billion for modernizing the electrical grid, and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act guarantees up to $250 billion in loans for projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions from existing energy infrastructure, Axios' Jacob Knutson reported last month.
The bottom line: It'll likely take years for those funds to translate into real-world improvements.