2020 Was A RecordSetting Year For Power Outages — And Not In A Good Way

2020 Was A Record-Setting Year For Power Outages — And Not In A Good Way

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There were countless U.S. power outages in 2020, but exactly how bad did things get? One analysis shows it was the worst on record yet.

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2020 Was A RecordSetting Year For Power Outages — And Not In A Good Way

2020 was an eventful year for more reasons than one, and according to one new report, it looks like it was especially challenging for U.S. power outages. Looking back at last year, it’s hard to think of something that didn’t happen. There was the beginning of a worldwide pandemic, a presidential election, and even a swarm of ‘murder hornets.’

It also seems like much of last year was filled with reports of continuous power outages throughout the United States. Various parts of the country were hit with widespread outages for one reason or another, leaving people without light, air conditioning, and heating when they needed it the most. This past January, PowerOutages.US indicated that power outages had increased by 73 percent compared to 2019.

While it’s no secret that power outages were rampant in 2020, a recently-published study shows they were even worse than some folks may have realized. According to an analysis published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (also known as EIA), U.S. power outages in 2020 were the worst recorded to date. On average, the EIA found that Americans went without power for about 8 hours in 2020 — a huge increase from the 3.5-hour average recorded in 2013 when the EIA first started keeping track.

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What Caused So Many Power Outages In 2020

As you might be able to guess, the primary cause of these increased outages was dangerous weather conditions. 2020 is on record as being the most active Atlantic hurricane season ever. There were also intense tropical storms, snowstorms, and wildfires — all of which caused the country’s power infrastructure to take a massive beating. Per the EIA’s report, “The average U.S. electricity customer experienced nearly 20 more minutes of power interruptions in 2020 than in 2017, the year with second-longest duration of interruptions in our records.” When excluding ‘major events’ from the equation, the U.S. outage average has remained at a consistent 2 hours between 2013 and 2020.

Things get especially troublesome when looking at outages for specific states. Thanks to Tropical Storm Isaias, people in Connecticut spent an average of nearly 45 hours in 2020 without power. Oklahoma residents were without power for an average of 50 hours last year, while people in Louisana went more than 60 hours without power.

With these numbers in mind, it raises concern as to what 2021’s report will look like. This year has produced similarly catastrophic weather and power outages — most notably the effects of Hurricane Ida and the energy crisis in Texas that happened in February. Continued investment in infrastructure and renewable energy should help those numbers go down, but it’s also naive to think more record-setting years aren’t in our future.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/2020-power-outages-united-states-worst-record-yet/

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