New York power outages in EIA data: typical interruption hours, plus what drove the spikes, from Tropical Storm Isaias to the Buffalo blizzard.
Setup Type
Quick answer: In an ordinary year, without a major event, the average New York utility customer loses power for about 2.2 to 2.5 hours total, per EIA's state reliability data for 2019 through 2025, with about 1.0 to 1.2 separate interruptions. What sets New York apart from the Gulf and Southeast states is that the all-events figure is never quiet: it ran from 3.4 to 8.0 hours in every one of those seven years. The worst year was 2024 at 8.0 hours, then 2020 at 7.5 hours, which includes Tropical Storm Isaias. New York's Department of Public Service reports Isaias peaked at roughly one million customers out and took until August 12, 2020 to fully restore. Buffalo's December 2022 blizzard put more than 80,000 households in the dark. The statewide average is gentle. The tail is wind, wet snow and trees, and it hits Long Island, the Hudson Valley and western New York hard.
Best for
New York homeowners, downstate and upstate, who want real outage-frequency data before deciding between a portable generator with an interlock, a standby system, or a battery.
Wrong fit
Buyers who already know their outage pattern and only need installed-cost or brand numbers. Start with the New York cost guide or the brand comparisons instead.
Tradeoff
New York's ordinary-year grid is reliable, so a standby system is rarely justified by the everyday baseline alone. The case for standby rests on rare multi-day wind and snow events, and a portable with an interlock covers many of those for far less money if you can handle manual setup and refueling.
New York's statewide numbers look calm, and a statewide average hides who actually gets hurt. Tropical Storm Isaias in 2020 and the Buffalo blizzard of 2022 were not average days. This guide shows what the government's own reliability data says, what caused each spike we could verify, and how to match a backup lane to the pattern New York really has.
We don't sell generators. We save you from buying the wrong one. For the money side of a New York project, including the fact that the state has no statewide electrician license, see what a standby generator costs installed in New York. If you have not picked a lane yet, standby vs portable vs battery walks the fit question in full.
The data: an ordinary New York 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 New York's rows from EIA's IEEE-method columns, converted from minutes to hours and rounded, read from the raw tables on November 4, 2026. We confirmed the column groups by checking that North Carolina's row in the same table reproduces the figures already published on our North Carolina outage guide. These are statewide averages across all reporting utilities, so your own utility's number can differ from them.
Year
Hours without power, all events
Hours without power, ordinary days only
Separate interruptions, all events
Separate interruptions, ordinary days only
2025
4.1
2.4
1.41
1.13
2024
8.0
2.4
1.67
1.06
2023
3.4
2.2
1.13
0.96
2022
5.8
2.5
1.47
1.16
2021
3.6
2.2
1.31
1.11
2020
7.5
2.4
1.48
1.08
2019
5.4
2.3
1.48
1.04
The "ordinary days only" column barely moves: 2.2 to 2.5 hours and about one interruption a year. That is close to the national ordinary-day figure of 2.2 hours for 2024 that we quote in standby vs portable vs battery. The "all events" column is the New York-specific finding. In Florida, Louisiana and Texas our own outage guides show all-events years many times the ordinary figure, with quieter years in between. New York never has a quiet year in this window: its lowest all-events figure is 3.4 hours (2023), and every year runs between about 1.5 and 3.3 times its own ordinary-day figure. The grid is dependable day to day, and some weather event takes a bite out of it every year, even though no single year approaches a Gulf hurricane year.
That is also why the statewide number understates the risk for one street. A state average blends dense, heavily built-out areas with long rural lines and overhead lines through trees. We found no primary table that splits these hours by region, so we do not claim one.
Suggested citation: Generator Guide, "How Often Does the Power Go Out in New York?," EIA SAIDI/SAIFI analysis 2019-2025, checked November 4, 2026.
What caused the bad years
Event
Date
Verified impact
Source type
Tropical Storm Isaias
Aug 4, 2020
DPS interim investigation report: peak outages in New York State of approximately one million customers, with roughly 1.5 million customers experiencing an outage during the event. Peak gusts above 70 mph across central Long Island, maximum 78 mph at Farmingdale. 90 percent of affected customers were restored by Aug 9, with full restoration on Aug 12. The governor's later release on the investigation says "approximately 900,000" at peak, so we treat the peak as roughly 0.9 to 1 million
State regulator report and governor release
Heavy wet snow storm
Apr 19, 2022
Governor's briefing: about 195,000 households without power on Tuesday, about 350,000 homes losing power across the whole event, with wet snow weighing branches onto lines
State briefing
Buffalo blizzard
Dec 23-25, 2022
State DHSES after-action review: more than 80,000 households without power at the peak, after 37 straight hours of blizzard-like conditions in Erie County
State after-action review
Remnants of Tropical Storm Debby
Aug 9, 2024
Governor, Aug 9: "somewhat over 100,000 people without power," from high winds and not from flooding
State briefing
All 2024 storm events
Calendar 2024
Governor's Jan 9, 2025 summary: roughly 2.7 million electrical outages across storm events in the year, with more than 35,000 contract line workers brought in
State summary
Read the table the way an engineer would. Isaias is the one event we can tie to a full outage and restoration timeline, and it is the most credible single driver of 2020's 7.5 hours. For 2022, the April snow storm and the December blizzard are both verified events, and 2024 had the Debby remnants plus the governor's tally of 2.7 million outages across the year, but we found no source that apportions those years' statewide hours among events, so treat them as likely contributors, not proven causes. We did not research the other years in the table.
The Isaias numbers by utility show how uneven a storm can be. The DPS report lists approximate peak outages of 380,000 for PSEG Long Island, 290,000 for Con Edison, 138,000 for Orange & Rockland, 110,000 for Central Hudson and 95,000 for NYSEG, and the report itself flags the PSEG Long Island figure as questionable because of problems with that utility's outage management system. The same regulator criticized communication and restoration-time estimates in that response. For you, the practical lesson is that an estimated restoration time on a utility website may not be reliable in a big storm, so plan from the worst case, not the estimate.
The pattern is the finding. Isaias was a tropical storm by the time it reached New York, and it still cost around a million customers power through wind and trees. The blizzard put more than 80,000 households out through 37 hours of blizzard conditions. Neither needs a hurricane landfall, and neither is limited to one region. Superstorm Sandy remains the state's reference storm, and our New York cost guide covers its numbers and what flood zones mean for generator placement.
How long did the lights stay out after Isaias
The DPS interim report is the best primary evidence on duration we found. The storm struck August 4, 2020. By August 9, five days later, 90 percent of the customers who had lost power were back. Full restoration came August 12, eight days after the storm. By utility, the report says Con Edison was 90 percent restored by August 9 and fully restored by August 12, PSEG Long Island reached about 90 percent on August 10 and finished August 12, and National Grid's Capital Region peak of roughly 35,000 outages cleared in under 36 hours.
Averages hide the tail. A customer in the last 10 percent waited most of a week. That household is exactly who a standby system or a well-planned portable setup is built for. We found no New York-wide median or longest-outage figure in any primary source, so none is claimed.
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 interruption a year), a portable generator on a permitted interlock is usually the proportionate answer. See interlock kit vs transfer switch for the legal way to connect one, and check the New York installed-cost breakdown for local licensing, because your town or city sets the rules.
If you live under mature trees or on a rural line, the honest case for standby is the Isaias pattern: not a catastrophic hurricane where you live, but wind that downs lines and keeps them down 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.
If your risk is heavy snow or a lake-effect blizzard, the same lane math applies, with one more constraint: roads and access. Snow can bury a generator's air path and exhaust area, so plan placement before winter and read the safety guides below. Size against your real loads with 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.
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, and keep it clear of drifting snow. Read never run a generator indoors and the generator safety guide before the next outage, not during it, and use the storm season generator prep checklist before the season starts.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often does the power go out in New York?
In an ordinary year, an average New York customer is without power about 2.2 to 2.5 hours, with about one separate interruption, per EIA's 2019-2025 data. Counting major events, the yearly total ran between 3.4 and 8.0 hours, with 2024 the highest at 8.0 hours and 2020 next at 7.5.
How many New Yorkers lost power in Tropical Storm Isaias?
New York's Department of Public Service reports peak outages of approximately one million customers statewide, and roughly 1.5 million customers experiencing an outage over the event. The governor's release on the investigation uses approximately 900,000 for the peak. Both are state sources, and counts differ by how and when they are taken.
How long were people without power after Isaias?
Per the DPS interim report, 90 percent of customers who lost power were restored by August 9, 2020, five days after the storm, and full restoration came on August 12.
Is a portable generator enough for New York?
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 New York-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.
A regional split of the statewide hours. EIA's table is statewide, so downstate, Long Island, Hudson Valley and upstate figures are not separated here.
How much of 2022's and 2024's statewide hours each named event accounts for. State releases give customer or household counts, not statewide hours, and several are snapshots, not peaks.
The Isaias peak to the single customer. The DPS report says roughly one million and the governor's release says roughly 900,000, and the report calls the PSEG Long Island figure questionable.
Causes of 2019, 2021, 2023 and 2025 all-events totals. We did not research those years.
Utility-level reliability filings and grid-investment claims. We did not retrieve Public Service Commission filings for individual utilities, so we make no claim about hardening spending or targets.
These guides are built from manufacturer documentation, public specifications, primary research where health claims matter, and repeated buyer questions that show up in real ownership and installation decisions.
Manufacturer responses can clarify pricing bands, warranty terms, support footprint, or common mistakes. They do not move a page up the shortlist on their own.
