How Reliable Is Your
Electric Utility?
See average outage minutes (SAIDI) and outage frequency (SAIFI) for the utility serving your address, drawn directly from the EIA Form 861 annual industry survey. Refreshed each EIA release.
plainutility ranks power-outage reliability, SAIDI and SAIFI, for 918 US electric utilities across all 50 states, so you can see how many minutes per year the average customer loses power, straight from federal EIA Form 861 data.
The national picture
In 2023 the average US electricity customer went roughly 341 minutes without power, but a typical customer's experience swings from about 72 minutes a year in District of Columbia to over 1863 minutes in Maine.
- 341 min
- avg outage time per customer, 2023 (customer-weighted)
- 918
- utilities tracked, all 50 states
- DC · 72
- most reliable state avg (min/yr)
- ME · 1863
- least reliable state avg (min/yr)
SAIDI = average minutes per year the typical customer is without power. Lower is better. Figures are customer-weighted state averages from EIA Form 861.
Most Reliable Utilities
View allLowest SAIDI (fewest outage minutes per year) - utilities serving 10,000+ customers
Least Reliable Utilities
View allHighest SAIDI (most outage minutes per year) - utilities serving 10,000+ customers
Understanding Outage Metrics
Utilities report two key reliability metrics to the federal government every year. Here's what they mean.
Measures the total average minutes per year a customer experiences outages. A SAIDI of 120 means the average customer loses power for 2 hours per year. Lower is better.
Measures how many times per year the average customer experiences a power outage. A SAIFI of 1.5 means the average customer has 1.5 outages annually. Lower is better.
Browse by State
View all statesLearn About Electric Utility Reliability
From understanding outage metrics to finding the most reliable utility in your area, our guides help you make sense of power reliability data.
Minutes without power per year
Day-to-day infrastructure reliability
Power interruptions per year
Frequently Asked Questions
What is SAIDI and why does it matter?
SAIDI (System Average Interruption Duration Index) measures the total average minutes per year a customer experiences power outages. Lower SAIDI = more reliable. It's the standard metric utilities report to the EIA, making it the best apples-to-apples comparison across utilities and states.
What does "without major event days" mean?
SAIDI "without major event days" (also called SAIDI-nMED) excludes outages caused by major storms, hurricanes, and other catastrophic events. It better reflects a utility's day-to-day infrastructure reliability vs. its vulnerability to extreme weather. Both metrics are shown on utility detail pages.
Where does this data come from?
All reliability data is from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Form 861 annual electric power industry survey. Utilities are legally required to file this data each year. ZIP code to utility mapping comes from OpenEI's utility rate database.
Why aren't all utilities included?
Reliability reporting (SAIDI/SAIFI) is voluntary in the EIA-861 survey. While most major utilities report, some smaller municipals and co-ops may not file reliability data every year. We display data for all {stats?.utilities_with_reliability?.toLocaleString()} utilities that filed reliability metrics.
Top US States by Average SAIDI
Lower bars = fewer outage minutes per customer per year. Live from the EIA Form 861 dataset, every state's SAIDI computed across all reporting utilities in that state.
Best-reliability states (avg SAIDI minutes/year)
See the full ranking on /rankings/most-reliable or compare against the worst at /rankings/worst-outages.
About this data
How PlainUtility works, and why you can trust these numbers
What this site is
PlainUtility is a plain-language reference comparing power outage frequency and duration (SAIDI/SAIFI) for 918 electric utilities across all 50 states, with ZIP-to-utility service territory mapping, built from official federal energy data.
Editorial process
- Source. Download the EIA Form 861 Annual Electric Power Industry Report reliability data files, and merge in ZIP-to-utility service territory mappings from the Department of Energy's OpenEI Utility Rate Database (URDB).
- Verify. Utilities are legally required to file EIA-861 data each year (reliability metrics specifically are voluntary); we display data only for utilities that actually filed reliability figures, with no invented or interpolated values.
- Publish. SAIDI, SAIDI-nMED, and SAIFI figures and state-level aggregates are computed directly from the EIA dataset, with ZIP-code lookups traced to OpenEI's service-territory files.
Editorial independence & corrections
The PlainUtility is independent and not affiliated with the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the Department of Energy, or any electric utility. Found an error or a stale figure? File a correction via the contact page, we respond within 72 hours and publish corrections with a visible revision note. See our methodology for full source attribution and refresh cadence.
Frequently asked
What is SAIDI and why does it matter?
SAIDI (System Average Interruption Duration Index) measures the total average minutes per year a customer experiences power outages. Lower SAIDI = more reliable. It's the standard metric utilities report to the EIA, making it the best apples-to-apples comparison across utilities and states.
What does "without major event days" mean?
SAIDI "without major event days" (also called SAIDI-nMED) excludes outages caused by major storms, hurricanes, and other catastrophic events. It better reflects a utility's day-to-day infrastructure reliability vs. its vulnerability to extreme weather. Both metrics are shown on utility detail pages.
Where does this data come from?
All reliability data is from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Form 861 annual electric power industry survey. Utilities are legally required to file this data each year. ZIP code to utility mapping comes from OpenEI's utility rate database.
Why aren't all utilities included?
Reliability reporting (SAIDI/SAIFI) is voluntary in the EIA-861 survey. While most major utilities report, some smaller municipals and co-ops may not file reliability data every year. We display data for all {stats?.utilities_with_reliability?.toLocaleString()} utilities that filed reliability metrics.