Most and Least Reliable U.S. Electric Utilities

Different reliability investments affect these components in different ways and come with very different costs, ranging from low-cost operational and maintenance measures to capital intensive infrastructure investments. Many outages originate on distribution systems, such as from tree contact or severe weather, where additional generation supply provides little benefit. However, available historic data does not show that load growth or supply-demand imbalances have driven customer outages. You’ll get new reports, event invitations, http://www.semmms.info/update-on-a6marr-progress/ and practical insights to help us all accelerate the clean energy transition. Our work is supported by philanthropy as well as partnerships, including fee-for-service engagements. Lesson plans, science fair experiments, field trips, teacher guide, and career corner.

A utility with 200+ SAIDI minutes may be implementing responsible wildfire mitigation. California utilities implemented Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) starting in 2019, intentionally cutting power during high-fire-risk conditions. See our rural vs. urban analysis for infrastructure details.

Together, these capabilities help utilities improve grid visibility, coordinate field activities, and support faster outage restoration. Oracle Utilities solutions help utilities manage their networks and assets, boost operational performance, improve energy efficiency, and deliver outstanding customer experiences. Improving energy reliability also helps utilities comply with regulations and strengthen customer confidence.

Resource Adequacy Report Data Dashboard

Florida utilities average 145 SAIDI minutes with MED but only 78 without, showing how much major events drive their numbers. Northeast utilities face harsher winters but maintain underground infrastructure in dense cities, yielding moderate SAIDI scores. Using EIA Form 861 reliability data, we identified which utilities lead and which lag. Treat outliers as context, then check the utility that actually serves your meter. According to EIA Form 861 reliability filings, geography and ownership type matter as much as operations – storm belts and rural co-ops dominate the high-SAIDI tail. Utilities also evaluate asset health, monitor outage trends, assess maintenance performance, and analyze operational data to identify opportunities for improvement.

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Grid Reliability and Security which directs the DOE to establish a uniform methodology for identifying at risk regions and guide federal reliability interventions, including emergency action under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act. The same focus that has been placed on potential outages of the future needs to be placed on the experienced outages of today to ensure customers aren’t overpaying for grid investments that don’t meet their needs. This reduces planners’ ability to ensure that future investments are actually addressing the most critical system needs. Utilities that do report this show that loss of supply was a minor contributor to customer outages over the past decade. This metric tracks how many times the average customer lost power over the course of each year.

Tools to customize searches, view specific data sets, study detailed documentation, and access time-series data. Monthly and https://innovatenexes.com/network-safety-measures.html yearly energy forecasts, analysis of energy topics, financial analysis, congressional reports. Forms EIA uses to collect energy data including descriptions, links to survey instructions, and additional information.

• 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.
• It provides a forward-looking snapshot of resource adequacy that is tied to electricity supplies, demand, and forecasted generation development, systematically exploring a range of dimensions that can be compared across regions.
• In fact, states exposed to extreme weather and heavy forests have longer customer outages on average.
• This approach would help ensure that spending produces measurable improvements in customer reliability metrics rather than defaulting to an overreliance on resource adequacy alone.

Data Sources and Methodology

• International energy information, including overviews, rankings, data, and analyses.
• Live EIA Form 861 state averages.
• The gap between the most and least reliable utilities is enormous.
• Energy reliability is achieved by balancing electricity supply and demand in real time while keeping the power grid operating within safe limits.

To that end, we decided to take a close look at the numbers to see if the data backs current strategies to enhance reliability. Electric grid reliability has been a major topic of public policy and discourse over the past year. RMI is an independent nonprofit working to accelerate the clean energy transition.

Every reliability number we publish comes from EIA Form 861 annual filings, the same data utilities file with state public utility commissions. For decision support, the pre-move reliability guide and insurance interaction guide walk through how outage history affects relocation and homeowner-policy decisions. Type rows are unweighted utility means among filers with SAIDI and SAIFI; customer counts sum the filing’s customer field.

Reserves, production, prices, employment and productivity, distribution, stocks, imports and exports. Crude oil, gasoline, heating oil, diesel, propane, and other liquids including biofuels and natural gas liquids. We reformatted the files for the years 1990–2011, but we didn’t change or update any data files. Data are the individual surveys responses and are included in the files described below. The short form is intended for smaller bundled-service utilities and has less detailed responses.

Some utilities deliver power with near-perfect consistency, while others leave customers in the dark for hours each year. The average American loses power for 150 to 300 minutes per year – but that average hides enormous variation. Reliable energy refers to the consistent availability of electricity when customers need it. The broader portfolio includes applications for outage management, advanced distribution management, work and asset management, customer information, and utility analytics. Improving energy reliability requires a combination of strategies, including the seven outlined below.

Least Reliable Utilities (

Service interruptions can affect public safety, disrupt commerce, increase operating costs, and reduce productivity. Together, these capabilities help maintain stable electric service across the grid. Data from sensors, smart meters, and operational systems helps utilities make faster, more informed decisions. Energy reliability is a top priority for utilities, grid operators, and large organizations that depend on continuous access to electricity. The EIA 861S is essentially a shorter version of Form EIA-861 and does not include reliability data. If your utility intends to complete or has already completed the EIA-861S (short form), then you do not need to submit Form EIA-861.

If we want to improve grid reliability, and do so in an affordable way, grid planners need to take steps to ensure that the investments they’re making will actually reduce the types of outages their customers experience. As electricity demand grows and adverse weather events become more frequent, maintaining reliable power has become essential to supporting business operations, public services, and economic activity. This webpage provides a dashboard to view the analytical results that informed that report’s forward-looking snapshot of resource adequacy based on electricity supplies, demand, and forecasted generation development. This indicates that although utilities may be meeting their supply-side standard in planning, other types of vulnerabilities not accounted for — particularly on the distribution system — are driving customer outages beyond planning standards. As a result, it is impossible to parse whether reported supply-side outages are due to power plant outages, transmission versus distribution failures, fuel supply issues, or any other factors. 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.