Power outages in South Carolina, by utility
Across 23 South Carolina utilities that reported to the federal government, the median customer went without power for 2.3 hours in 2025 — that is 1.3× better than the national median. South Carolina ranks #30 of 41 states for outage time, worst first.
- Median utility
- 2.3 hrs
- typical customer
- Worst utility
- 8.5 hrs
- Newberry Electric Coop, Inc
- Best utility
- 0.7 hrs
- South Carolina Public Service Authority
- Utilities reporting
- 23
- of 752 nationwide
Every reporting South Carolina utility, worst outage time first
| # | Utility | Outage time/yr | Outages/yr | vs US median |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Newberry Electric Coop, IncCooperative | 8.5 hrs512 min | 3.2 | 2.9× worse |
| 2 | Mid-Carolina Electric Coop IncCooperative | 4.5 hrs267 min | 2.2 | 1.5× worse |
| 3 | Tri-County Electric Coop, Inc (SC)Cooperative | 4.4 hrs265 min | 2.5 | 1.5× worse |
| 4 | Edisto Electric Coop, IncCooperative | 3.9 hrs235 min | — | 1.3× worse |
| 5 | City of Orangeburg - (SC)Municipal | 3.7 hrs224 min | 1.8 | 1.3× worse |
| 6 | Duke Energy Carolinas, LLCInvestor Owned | 3.7 hrs220 min | 1.3 | 1.2× worse |
| 7 | Santee Electric Coop, IncCooperative | 3.5 hrs211 min | — | 1.2× worse |
| 8 | Laurens Electric Coop, IncCooperative | 3.5 hrs211 min | 1.8 | 1.2× worse |
| 9 | Blue Ridge Electric Coop Inc - (SC)Cooperative | 3.4 hrs205 min | — | 1.2× worse |
| 10 | Lynches River Elec Coop, IncCooperative | 3.4 hrs202 min | 2.0 | 1.1× worse |
| 11 | Aiken Electric Coop IncCooperative | 3.2 hrs189 min | — | 1.1× worse |
| 12 | MPD Electric CooperativeCooperative | 2.3 hrs136 min | 1.2 | 1.3× better |
| 13 | Dominion Energy South Carolina, IncInvestor Owned | 2.2 hrs131 min | 1.3 | 1.4× better |
| 14 | Duke Energy Progress - (NC)Investor Owned | 2 hrs119 min | 1.1 | 1.5× better |
| 15 | Berkeley Electric Coop IncCooperative | 1.9 hrs114 min | 1.4 | 1.6× better |
| 16 | Horry Electric Coop IncCooperative | 1.8 hrs110 min | 1.3 | 1.6× better |
| 17 | Greenwood CPWMunicipal | 1.7 hrs101 min | 0.9 | 1.8× better |
| 18 | Black River Electric Coop, Inc - (SC)Cooperative | 1.6 hrs96 min | 1.1 | 1.9× better |
| 19 | Easley Combined Utility SystemMunicipal | 1.5 hrs91 min | 1.3 | 2.0× better |
| 20 | City of Rock Hill - (SC)Municipal | 1.2 hrs69 min | 0.8 | 2.6× better |
| 21 | York Electric Coop IncCooperative | 1.1 hrs66 min | 0.5 | 2.7× better |
| 22 | Palmetto Electric Coop IncCooperative | 0.8 hrs51 min | 0.8 | 3.5× better |
| 23 | South Carolina Public Service AuthorityState | 0.7 hrs43 min | 0.7 | 4.1× better |
Outage time is SAIDI: the average minutes a customer went without power across the year, storms and major events included. Outages/yr is SAIFI. The US median across all reporting utilities is 3 hours (178 minutes).
What these numbers do and do not say
SAIDI counts the minutes an average customer spent without power over the year, including storms and other major events. We rank on the figure that includes them, because excluding storms would describe a year nobody actually lived through.
Utilities report these numbers themselves, and smaller co-ops and municipal systems often serve rural territory where a single line fault affects a large share of customers. A high number is not automatically mismanagement — but it is still the power you did not have.
Utilities that filed no reliability data are left out entirely rather than counted as zero.