2 days ago
Map Shows Where Power Outages Are Most Common in the US
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From Winter Storm Blair to Hurricane Beryl in Texas and the more recent Connecticut thunderstorms, power outages from severe weather events have become an increasingly common reality across the United States in recent years.
A nationwide study from the Urban Resilience AI Lab at Texas A&M University has produced the first-ever Power System Vulnerability Index (PSVI)—a classification of each county identifying those most at risk of frequent and prolonged blackouts.
"Using data from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, we studied the effect of weather events on the frequency and duration of nationwide power outages over the past 10 years," explained paper author and civil engineer Junwei Ma in a statement.
"The dataset included over 179 million data points sorted by time and location, allowing us to create the PSVI."
Where US Power Outages Hit Hardest
The researchers' analysis examined outages between 2014 and 2023 across 3,022 U.S. counties, covering 96 percent of the contiguous United States.
Results showed a steady nationwide rise in power system vulnerability, with 318 counties across 45 states now considered "hotspots" for high risk.
Regions Most Vulnerable to Blackouts
According to the PSVI data, the most vulnerable U.S. regions include:
The West Coast, particularly California and Washington
The East Coast, including Florida and the Northeast megalopolis
The Great Lakes corridor (Chicago–Detroit)
Gulf Coast areas of Texas
The average county experienced outages lasting 7.3 days per year—roughly 2 percent of the year without power—with an outage occurring about once a week.
Since 2019, outage duration, frequency, and scale have increased by around 20 percent annually.
Why Vulnerability Is Rising
Researchers linked many spikes in vulnerability to extreme weather disasters such as wildfires in California, hurricanes in Florida, and the 2021 Texas winter storm.
However, non-weather factors, including aging electrical grids, rising energy demand, and urban development density, also play a major role.
Urban counties, with dense populations and infrastructure, showed significantly higher vulnerability than rural areas.
"Dense street trees, heavy electricity demand, and concentrated infrastructure mean cities are hit harder and recover more slowly from outages," Ma explained.
How the Power System Vulnerability Index Works
The PSVI was built using explainable A.I., a machine learning method that weighs outage frequency, intensity, and duration to produce a county-by-county score.
This publicly available tool allows users to explore vulnerability trends over the past decade and compare risks nationwide.
"We're turning 179 million messy outage logs into a roadmap for prevention—showing each county whether its biggest pain point is too many outages, too long, or too large," paper author and civil engineer professor Ali Mostafavi told Newsweek.
Why It Matters
The team also warned that many A.I. data centers and critical facilities are located in high-risk zones, underscoring the need for targeted investment in resilient infrastructure as severe weather events are expected to become more frequent.
"The data show a clear pattern: U.S. power outages are becoming more frequent, longer, and clustered in hotspot counties," Mostafavi said.
"By turning high-frequency outage logs into a county-level Power-System Vulnerability Index, we see not only where the grid struggles, but why—whether the main issue is too many events, too many customers affected, or restorations that take too long.
"Without targeted upgrades, today's chronic pockets will intensify during climate extremes."
The index represents the first transparent, nationwide, county-level view of grid vulnerability built from high-frequency, utility-reported outages, Mostafavi continued.
"It moves the conversation from anecdotes to comparable metrics every policymaker can understand."
He concluded: "With climate extremes intensifying and electrification accelerating, leaders need clear, data-driven targets for hardening the grid and protecting residents."
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Reference
Ma, J., Li, B., Omitaomu, O. A., & Mostafavi, A. (2025). Establishing nationwide power system vulnerability index across US counties using interpretable machine learning. Applied Energy, 397.
