Power Outages By the Numbers.

What’s happening? I’ll admit when I read the headline, I thought oh has to be California or maybe Texas if we factor in Winter Storm Uri. I was wrong. Maine has the highest number of power outages per year at an average of 4 outages per year and ranks 2nd in outage duration of 14 hours annually over a five-year period from 2015 to 2019

Why is this important? Watching Maine grapple with consistent electric power could be instructive. They are adding Hydropower to Western Maine & say that “expensive backup generators or battery storage are answers for some, but are not affordable to everyone, nor are microgrids for communities or islands.” A 2019 Maine law requires utilities to establish and file their emergency response plan for recovery and restoration every two years.

How will this be important? Watch their utility regulator who is considering “possibly holding utilities to performance-based standards”

Bangor Daily News via Governing | Maine Works to Resolve the Worst Power Outages in the Nation