This is a list of notable wide-scale power outages. To be included, the power outage must conform to all of the following criteria:
For example:
Article | People affected (millions) | Location | Date | References |
---|---|---|---|---|
2012 India blackouts | 620 | India | July 30–31, 2012 | [1] [2] [3] |
2023 Pakistan blackout | 230 (99% of population) | Pakistan | January 23, 2023 | [4] |
2001 India blackout | 230 | India | January 2, 2001 | [5] |
2022 Bangladesh blackout | 140 (80% of the population) | Bangladesh | October 4, 2022 | [6] |
2021 Pakistan blackout | 200 (90% population) | Pakistan | January 9, 2021 | [7] |
2014 Bangladesh blackout | 150 (85% of the population) | Bangladesh | November 1, 2014 | [8] |
2015 Pakistan blackout | 140 | Pakistan | January 26, 2015 | [9] |
2019 Java blackout | 120 | Indonesia | August 4–5, 2019 | [10] [11] [12] [13] |
2005 Java–Bali blackout | 100 | Indonesia | August 18, 2005 | [14] |
1999 Southern Brazil blackout | 97 | Brazil | March 11–June 22, 1999 | [15] |
2015 Turkey blackout | 70 | Turkey | March 31, 2015 | [16] |
2009 Brazil and Paraguay blackout | 60 | Brazil, Paraguay | November 10–20, 2009 | [17] |
2003 Italy blackout | 56 | Italy, Switzerland | September 28, 2003 | [18] |
Northeast blackout of 2003 | 55 | Canada, United States | August 14–16, 2003 | [19] |
2019 Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay blackout | 48 | Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay | June 16, 2019 | [20] |
2002 Luzon blackout | 40 | Philippines | May 21, 2002 | [21] |
2001 Luzon blackout | 35 | Philippines | April 7, 2001 | [22] |
Northeast blackout of 1965 | 30 | Canada, United States | November 9, 1965 | [23] |
2019 Venezuelan blackouts | 30 | Venezuela | March 7, 2019–July 23, 2019 | [24] [25] [26] [27] |
2020 Sri Lankan blackouts | 21 | Sri Lanka | August 17, 2020 | [28] |
2016 Sri Lanka blackout | 21 | Sri Lanka | March 13, 2016 | [29] |
This method is a formula that multiplies the number of hours by the population affected, and does not reflect the nominal time in hours that the outages lasted.
Article | People affected (millions) | Location | Length (in customer-hours) | References |
---|---|---|---|---|
2013 Philippines blackouts | 6.7 | Philippines | 6.3 billion hours | [30] |
2017 Puerto Rico blackouts | 1.5 | Puerto Rico | 3.4 billion hours | [30] |
2019 Venezuelan blackouts | 30 | Venezuela | >3.3 billion hours | [26] |
A power outage is the loss of the electrical power network supply to an end user.
The northeast blackout of 1965 was a significant disruption in the supply of electricity on Tuesday, November 9, 1965, affecting parts of Ontario in Canada and Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont in the United States. Over 30 million people and 80,000 square miles (207,000 km2) were left without electricity for up to 13 hours.
The New York City blackout of 1977 was an electricity blackout that affected most of New York City on July 13–14, 1977. The only unaffected neighborhoods in the city were in southern Queens, which were part of the Long Island Lighting Company system, as well as the Pratt Institute campus in Brooklyn, and a few other large apartment and commercial complexes that operated their own power generators.
The 2003 Italy blackout was a serious power outage that affected all of the Italian Peninsula for 12 hours and part of Switzerland near Geneva for 3 hours on 28 September 2003. It was the largest blackout in the series of blackouts in 2003, involving about 56 million people.
The 2006 Auckland Blackout was a major electrical blackout in Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand, on 12 June 2006. It started at 08:30 local time, with most areas of Auckland regaining power by 14:45 local time. It affected some 230,000 customers and at least 700,000 people in and around the city.
The 2006 Queens blackout was a series of power outages that affected the northwest section of the New York City borough Queens in July 2006. The blackout primarily affected the neighborhoods of Astoria, Long Island City, Sunnyside, and Woodside. The outages affected 174,000 people, caused business losses of tens of millions of dollars, caused airport and transit delays and cancellations, and caused unsavory living conditions due to a concurrent heat wave.
The Northeast blackout of 2003 was a widespread power outage throughout parts of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States, and most parts of the Canadian province of Ontario on Thursday, August 14, 2003, beginning just after 4:10 p.m. EDT.
The 1996 Western North America blackouts were two widespread power outages that occurred across Western Canada, the Western United States, and Northwest Mexico on July 2 and August 10, 1996. They were spread 6 weeks apart and were thought to be similarly caused by excess demand during a hot summer.
The 2009 Brazil and Paraguay blackout was a power outage that occurred throughout much of Brazil and for a short time the entirety of Paraguay, on Tuesday, November 10, to Friday, 20 November, 2009, at approximately 22:15 BST. The blackout affected an estimated 60 million people in Brazil.
The 2010 Chile blackout was an electric power outage that affected most of Chile on March 14, 2010. It began at 8:44 pm on Sunday and continued into the next day. The power was restored in a few hours in some areas, and by midnight in most areas, except in the Biobío Region.
The 2011 Southwest blackout, also known as the Great Blackout of 2011, was a widespread power outage that affected the San Diego–Tijuana area, southern Orange County, Imperial Valley, Mexicali Valley, Coachella Valley, and parts of Arizona. It occurred on Thursday, September 8, 2011, beginning at about 3:38pm PDT, and was the largest power failure in California history.
Several major power outages have occurred in the country of Malaysia.
Two severe power outages affected most of northern and eastern India on 30 and 31 July 2012. The 30 July 2012 blackout affected over 400 million people and lasted about 13.5 hrs. During that period, it was the largest power outage in history by number of people affected, beating the January 2001 blackout in Northern India. Similar conditions caused a blackout on the next day, which remained the largest power outage in history as of June 2024. The outage affected more than 620 million people, spread across 22 states in Northern, Eastern, and Northeast India. An estimated 32 gigawatts of generating capacity was taken offline. Of the affected population, 320 million initially had power, while the rest lacked direct access. Electric service was restored in the affected locations between 31 July and 1 August 2012.
The December 2013 North American storm complex was a significant storm complex that included many different types of severe weather, including a winter storm, a severe ice storm and a tornado outbreak that impacted the central and eastern portions of Canada, parts of the Central Great Plains, the Southern United States, and the northeastern United States from 20 to 23 December 2013. Formed in the South Central United States, the storm headed across the Great Plains towards Canada into Atlantic Canada and northeastern United States where the storm dissipated on 23 December 2013. The storm produced freezing rain and snow to the affected areas which caused massive damage to electric power transmission and trees. The storm resulted in 29 deaths, loss of power to over a million residents and over $200 million in damages. The storm produced similar conditions to the ice storm of 1998 which affected similar areas.
The South Australian blackout of 2016 was a widespread power outage in South Australia that occurred as a result of storm damage to electricity transmission infrastructure on 28 September 2016. The cascading failure of the electricity transmission network resulted in almost the entire state losing its electricity supply, affecting 850,000 SA customers. Kangaroo Island did not lose its supply, as the Kangaroo Island power station had been built to supply the island for the contingency of a failure in the power cable under the Backstairs Passage.
On 16 June 2019, a large-scale power outage struck most of Argentina, all of Uruguay, and parts of Paraguay, leaving an estimated total of 48 million people without electrical supply.
The West Side of Manhattan in New York City experienced a power failure on July 13, 2019, at approximately 7 p.m. EDT. Con Edison is the energy utility serving the area, and they reported that approximately 73,000 customers were without power. Power was fully restored by midnight. The power failure occurred on the 42nd anniversary of the New York City blackout of 1977, which left nine million customers without power.
The 2019 California power shutoffs, known as public safety power shutoff (PSPS) events, were massive preemptive power shutoffs that occurred in approximately 30 counties in Northern California and several areas in Southern California from October 9 to November 1, 2019, and on November 20, 2019, by Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), Southern California Edison (SCE), and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E). The power shutoffs were an attempt to prevent wildfires from being started by electrical equipment during strong and dry winds. The shutoffs initially affected around 800,000 customer accounts, or about 2.5 million people, but expanded to cause over 3 million people to lose utility-provided electrical power by late October as more utility companies from around the state also did preemptive power shutoffs.
In February 2021, the state of Texas suffered a major power crisis, which came about during three severe winter storms sweeping across the United States on February 10–11, 13–17, and 15–20. The storms triggered the worst energy infrastructure failure in Texas state history, leading to shortages of water, food, and heat. More than 4.5 million homes and businesses were left without power, some for several days. At least 246 people were killed directly or indirectly, with some estimates as high as 702 killed as a result of the crisis.
The 2024 Venezuelan blackouts were a series of interruptions to Venezuela's electrical service nationwide. The interruptions began on 27 August with a blackout that affected 12 states in the country at around 7:12 pm VET, lasting until service restorations began at approximately 8:30 pm. On 30 August, another blackout was recorded that left more than 20 states in the country without electricity, beginning at 4:50 am and leaving a significant portion of the nation without power for 12 hours, with harder-hit areas not having power for 20 hours. Outages were again reported in Caracas on 1 September, continuing as of 3 September and through 5 September.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)The southern Outer Banks is officially in recovery mode after the eight-day-long power outage.
During its peak more than 176,000 WPS and 100,000 WE Energies customers were without power after powerful storms moved through Wisconsin
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