How often each Texas utility's customers lose power

An ordinary year: outages outside major storms, 2025

Every Texas delivery utility files a Service Quality Report with the Public Utility Commission each February. It counts how many times the average customer lost power and for how many minutes in total, and it keeps catastrophic storms in a separate column. The Commission judges each utility on the ordinary outages, against a standard set from that utility's own past.

Per average customer, 2025, forced interruptions (everything except major events, planned work and outages caused outside the utility's own lines). Oncor, CenterPoint and AEP Texas came in better than their standards. * TNMP's figure is the standard the Commission cited when it found TNMP in violation for 2020, 2021 and 2022. A later Commission staff report charts a looser 1.08 times and 97 minutes for 2023 and 2024; we could not find the order that changed it, so we show the one we can source.

With the storms counted, 2019 to 2025

The federal Energy Information Administration collects the same kind of figure with major storms left in. This is the number that matches what living through a bad year feels like. Hours without power per average customer:

2025 figures are EIA's early release, which it marks as not fully edited. Oncor 2020 is left out: EIA's figure for that year does not match Oncor's own filing and breaks the pattern of every other year. TNMP 2021 looks mild because TNMP filed February 2021 under outages caused outside its system, not as a major event, and EIA's figure follows that: TNMP reported another 1,248 minutes (about 21 hours) that year.

What the bad years looked like

Two years dominate the table. In 2021, the Commission's staff attribute the major-event outages at CenterPoint and AEP Texas to Winter Storm Uri; CenterPoint's February 2021 major events alone came to about 34 hours per average customer. In 2024, CenterPoint's filing shows about 16 hours of major-event outage in May and about 54 hours in July, for about 72 hours in the year with everything counted. TNMP had its own July in 2024, about 29 hours of major events.

These are averages across millions of customers. After a storm, some homes are back in hours and others wait a week, so the average understates what the unlucky streets go through.

Which Texas utility has the fewest power outages?

In 2025, Oncor. Outside major storms, its average customer lost power 0.72 times for a total of about 67 minutes, against 1.03 times and 90 minutes for TNMP, 1.13 times and 101 minutes for CenterPoint, and 1.21 times and 118 minutes for AEP Texas. Those are the figures each utility filed with the Public Utility Commission of Texas for 2025.

How long does the average Houston home go without power in a year?

In an ordinary year, a little under two hours. In 2025, the average CenterPoint customer was without power for about 101 minutes outside major storms and about 3.2 hours with storms counted. In a bad storm year it is a different world: in 2024, with storms counted, the average was about 72 hours, most of it in May and July.

Do these numbers include hurricanes and big storms?

The first table does not. Texas utilities report catastrophic "major events" separately, and the state judges them on everyday outages only. The second table does include them, from the federal Energy Information Administration's data, which is why years like 2021 and 2024 stand out.

What happens if a utility misses the state standard?

Each utility's standard is set from its own history, and it is in violation when a year comes in more than 5% worse. The Commission can then order improvements and penalties. It found TNMP in violation for 2020, 2021 and 2022, and in 2024 it rejected an agreement that would have loosened CenterPoint's outage-duration standard.

Is my outage in these numbers?

Yes, if it lasted long enough to count as a sustained interruption, but spread across every customer. An average of two hours can mean most homes lost nothing and some lost a day. Your own history is the better guide: count how many times in the last few years you lost power for more than a few hours.

What this means if you are thinking about a battery

In an ordinary year, outages here are short enough that a battery is a convenience. Its case rests on the bad years, and the table shows they come around: two of the last five years in Houston. A battery on its own will not carry a whole house through 72 hours. Paired with solar sized to make more than the home uses, it does not have to: the panels run the house in daylight and refill the battery, the battery covers each night, and on an average day normal use carries on for as long as the grid is down. The stormy days themselves are the weak spot, because heavy cloud cuts what the panels make. The battery calculator works through both cases with your own bill. The subscription systems we sell are generally sized to make more than the home uses in a year, where the roof has room, and a home battery is available with the subscription;the estimator shows what your roof and bill would come to.