# Georgia Power Outages: 2026 Data

Georgia power outages in EIA data: typical interruption hours, plus what drove the spikes, from Tropical Storm Zeta in Atlanta to Hurricane Helene.

- Canonical: [https://generators.guide/guides/power-outages-in-georgia](https://generators.guide/guides/power-outages-in-georgia)
- Markdown: [https://generators.guide/guides/power-outages-in-georgia.md](https://generators.guide/guides/power-outages-in-georgia.md)
- Published: 2026-10-28
- Updated: 2026-10-28
- Author: Anna Persson

## Quick answer

In an ordinary year, without a major event, the average Georgia utility customer loses power for about 2.1 to 2.4 hours total, per EIA's state reliability data for 2019 through 2025, with 2024 the one exception at 3.5 hours. The number that matters is the bad year. Georgia's worst year in that data was 2024 at 20.1 hours, driven by Hurricane Helene, which crossed the state from Valdosta to Augusta with hurricane-force gusts far from the coast. The second worst, 2020 at 8.7 hours, includes Tropical Storm Zeta, a storm with gusts mostly in the 45 to 55 mph range that still left over 1 million Georgia electric customers without power at its peak, per the National Weather Service. In Georgia the outage threat is wind and falling trees, and it reaches metro Atlanta, not just the coast.

Georgia is usually pictured as a coastal-hurricane state. The data says otherwise. A tropical storm with gusts in the 45 to 55 mph range cut power to more than a million Georgia customers in 2020, and Hurricane Helene did its damage in 2024 around Valdosta and Augusta, not on the coast. Here is what the government's own reliability numbers show, what caused each spike, and how to size backup power for the pattern Georgia actually has.

We don't sell generators. We save you from buying the wrong one. For the money side of a Georgia project, see [what a standby generator costs installed in Georgia](/guides/generator-install-cost-georgia). If you have not picked a lane yet, [standby vs portable vs battery](/guides/standby-vs-portable-generator) walks the fit question in full.

## The data: an ordinary Georgia year vs a bad year

The U.S. Energy Information Administration collects SAIDI (System Average Interruption Duration Index, the total minutes an average customer is without power) and SAIFI (System Average Interruption Frequency Index, how many separate interruptions that customer has) every year, and publishes versions that include and exclude "major event days." The figures below are Georgia's rows from EIA's IEEE-method columns, converted from minutes to hours, read from the raw table on October 28, 2026 and checked cell by cell against the table's column groups. These are statewide averages across all reporting utilities, not Georgia Power alone.

| Year | Hours without power, all events | Hours without power, ordinary days only | Separate interruptions, all events | Separate interruptions, ordinary days only |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 4.5 | 2.4 | 1.84 | 1.44 |
| 2024 | 20.1 | 3.5 | 2.10 | 1.24 |
| 2023 | 5.7 | 2.2 | 1.86 | 1.34 |
| 2022 | 3.5 | 2.2 | 1.67 | 1.29 |
| 2021 | 2.3 | 2.1 | 1.29 | 1.24 |
| 2020 | 8.7 | 2.2 | 1.95 | 1.33 |
| 2019 | 2.5 | 2.1 | 1.36 | 1.22 |

Outside 2024, the "ordinary days only" column stays between 2.1 and 2.4 hours and about 1.2 to 1.4 interruptions a year. That is a solid baseline, close to the national ordinary-day figure this site quotes in [standby vs portable vs battery](/guides/standby-vs-portable-generator). The "all events" column is where the risk shows up: 2020 runs about four times its own ordinary-day figure and 2024 about six times. 2021 and 2019 barely register a gap, which tells you Georgia can go years with nothing statewide happening.

One oddity worth naming: 2024's ordinary-days figure of 3.5 hours is well above every other year. EIA's own table shows the number, but we did not find a primary document explaining why days that were not classified as major events ran longer that year, so we do not guess at a cause.

**Permanent source:** [generators.guide/guides/power-outages-in-georgia](https://generators.guide/guides/power-outages-in-georgia)

**Suggested citation:** Generator Guide, "How Often Does the Power Go Out in Georgia?," EIA SAIDI/SAIFI analysis 2019-2025, checked October 28, 2026.

## What caused the bad years

| Event | Date | Verified impact | Deaths (Georgia) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tropical Storm Zeta | Oct 29, 2020, after a Louisiana landfall the evening before | National Weather Service Atlanta: over 1 million electric customers in Georgia without power at the peak, the morning of Oct 29. Sustained winds 20 to 35 mph, gusts mostly 45 to 55 mph, numerous trees and power lines down across north and parts of central Georgia | 3, killed by falling trees (NWS) |
| Hurricane Idalia | Aug 30, 2023, southern Georgia | Georgia Power's own release: 132,396 customers without power as of 4:30 PM that day. That is a snapshot, not a confirmed peak, and it covers one utility | None found in the sources we read |
| Winter Storm Cora | Jan 10-11, 2025 | Georgia Power: more than 230,000 customers restored since the storm began, fewer than 60,000 still affected on Saturday morning. Heavy snow, freezing rain and ice in North Georgia | None found in the sources we read |
| Severe storm system | Feb 16, 2025 | Georgia Power: nearly 170,000 customers restored as of 2 p.m. Sunday. High winds, downed trees and lightning from the mountains to the coast | None found in the sources we read |
| Hurricane Helene | Sept 26-27, 2024 | Georgia Power: 1,544,000+ total outages counted across the event. 523,000+ customers restored in the first 48 hours, 90% of affected customers in one week, over 99% by midday Oct 5. 12,300+ poles broken, 1,500+ miles of downed line | 37 per NHC's final report: 28 direct (26 wind, 2 tornado) and 9 indirect |

Read the table the way an engineer would. Helene explains 2024, and Zeta is the largest single piece of 2020's 8.7 hours that we could verify. We also list Idalia, Cora and the February 2025 storm because they are the verified Georgia Power events in 2023 and 2025, but we did not find a source that apportions those years' statewide hours among events, so treat them as likely contributors, not proven causes.

The pattern is the finding. Zeta was only a tropical storm by the time it reached Georgia, and it still caused over a million outages through falling trees, with three deaths. Helene's NHC report documents a wind gust of 83 knots in Lowndes County near Valdosta and a 71-knot gust at Augusta Regional Airport. Neither is a coastal story. If your street has mature pines and oaks over the power line, your risk looks like theirs.

## How long did the lights stay out after Helene

Georgia Power's own Helene timeline is the best primary evidence on duration we found. More than 250,000 customers were restored by Friday evening, September 27. 523,000+ were back within 48 hours, and a week out the company reported 90% of affected customers restored, over a million in total. Over 99% were restored by midday Saturday, October 5, nine days after landfall. The same page says 95% were restored within the first 10 days, which is a slightly different framing of the same recovery, so we quote the milestones as the company worded them.

Averages hide the tail. A customer in the last 1% of that recovery waited well beyond the 90% mark, and that tail is exactly the household a standby system or a well-planned portable setup is built for. We could not find a Georgia-specific median or longest-outage duration in any primary source, so no such figure is claimed here.

## What this means for your generator choice

Match the machine to the pattern you actually have, not to the last headline you remember.

**If your outages look like the ordinary-year data** (about 2 hours and one to two interruptions a year), a portable generator on a permitted interlock is usually the proportionate answer. See [interlock kit vs transfer switch](/guides/interlock-kit-vs-transfer-switch) for the legal way to connect one, and the [Georgia installed-cost breakdown](/guides/generator-install-cost-georgia) for permit and licensing details.

**If you live under mature trees, in either metro Atlanta or south Georgia pine country**, the honest case for standby is the Zeta and Helene pattern: a storm that is not a catastrophic hurricane where you live, but takes down lines for days. That is the case for automatic switchover, especially if someone at home depends on powered medical equipment. Budget the whole project, not the sticker price, using [the real cost of a whole-house generator](/guides/real-cost-of-a-whole-house-generator).

**If your risk is a winter ice event** like Cora, the same lane math applies. Ice outages happen in cold weather, so confirm what a battery or portable can do for heating loads before you rely on either. Size against your real loads with [what size generator do I need](/guides/what-size-generator-do-i-need).

**If your outages are short even in a bad year**, a home battery can be the quieter, lower-hassle option. See the honest tradeoffs in [generator vs home battery](/guides/generator-vs-home-battery).

**Whatever you run, carbon monoxide risk climbs the longer an outage lasts.** Never run a generator indoors, in a garage, or near a window, door or vent. Read [never run a generator indoors](/guides/never-run-a-generator-indoors) and the [generator safety guide](/guides/generator-safety-guide) before the next outage, not during it, and use the [hurricane season generator prep](/guides/hurricane-season-generator-prep) checklist before June.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### How often does the power go out in Georgia?

In an ordinary year, an average Georgia customer is without power about 2.1 to 2.4 hours, with about 1.2 to 1.4 separate interruptions, per EIA's 2019-2025 data, with 2024 as the exception at 3.5 hours. In years with major events the total jumps: 8.7 hours in 2020 and 20.1 hours in 2024.

### Did Tropical Storm Zeta really knock out power to a million Georgia customers?

Yes, according to the National Weather Service in Atlanta, which reports that over 1 million electric customers in Georgia were without electricity at the peak on the morning of October 29, 2020. Its own page lists gusts mostly between 45 and 55 mph and three deaths from falling trees. Counts vary between trackers and utilities, so we quote the NWS statement.

### How long were people without power after Hurricane Helene in Georgia?

Georgia Power reports more than 523,000 customers back within 48 hours, 90% of affected customers in a week, and over 99% by midday on October 5, 2024. Some households waited far longer than the headline milestones suggest.

### Is a portable generator enough for Georgia?

For ordinary outages and many storm outages, often yes, if it is connected through a permitted interlock or transfer switch and run outdoors, well away from the house. Standby earns its price when your realistic pattern includes multi-day outages, medical dependence, or no one to set up and refuel a portable.

## What we could not verify

- **A Georgia-specific median or longest outage duration.** EIA's SAIDI is an annual average per customer, and no primary source we found gives a durations distribution.
- **Why 2024's ordinary-days figure was 3.5 hours.** The EIA table shows it, but we found no document explaining it.
- **How much of 2023's and 2025's statewide hours each named event accounts for.** Georgia Power's releases give customer counts, not statewide hours, and several are snapshots, not peaks.
- **The cause of 2017's 17.2-hour year in the same EIA table.** It falls outside the 2019-2025 window we analyzed, and we did not research it.
- **A peak customer count for Helene in Georgia from Georgia Power itself.** Its page lists 1,544,000+ total outages, which counts repeat interruptions, but no single peak figure.
- **The Georgia Public Service Commission's own reliability filings.** We did not retrieve them, so we make no claim here about utility grid-hardening spending or targets.

## Sources

- [EIA: Electric Power Annual, Table 11.4, SAIDI Values (Minutes Per Year) of the U.S. Distribution System by State](https://www.eia.gov/electricity/annual/html/epa_11_04.html)
- [EIA: Electric Power Annual, Table 11.5, SAIFI Values (Times Per Year) of the U.S. Distribution System by State](https://www.eia.gov/electricity/annual/html/epa_11_05.html)
- [National Weather Service Atlanta/Peachtree City: Tropical Storm Zeta, October 29, 2020](https://www.weather.gov/ffc/TropicalStormZeta)
- [Georgia Power: Hurricane Helene storm page](https://www.georgiapower.com/about/outages/historic-storms/hurricane-helene.html)
- [NHC Tropical Cyclone Report: Hurricane Helene (AL092024)](https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL092024_Helene.pdf)
- [Georgia Power: Georgia Power crews restoring power (Hurricane Idalia, Aug 30, 2023)](https://www.georgiapower.com/news-hub/press-releases/georgia-power-crews-restoring-power.html)
- [Georgia Power: Georgia Power restores power to 230,000+ customers following Winter Storm Cora](https://www.georgiapower.com/news-hub/press-releases/georgia-power-restores-power-to-230000-plus-customers-following-winter-storm-cora.html)
- [Georgia Power: Georgia Power restores power to nearly 170,000 customers as of Sunday afternoon](https://www.georgiapower.com/news-hub/press-releases/georgia-power-restores-power-to-nearly-170,000-customers-as-of-sunday-afternoon.html)