This is a list of notable wide-scale power outages. To be included, the power outage must conform to of the following criteria: The outage must not be planned by the service provider. The outage must affect at least 1,000 people. The outage must last at least one hour. There must be at least 1,000,000 person-hours of disruption.
For example: 1,000 people affected for 1,000 hours (42 days) or more would be included; fewer than 1,000 people would not be, regardless of duration. One million people affected for a minimum of one hour would be included; if the duration were less than one hour, it would not, regardless of number of people. 10,000 people affected for 100 hours, or 100,000 for 10 hours would be included.
Largest by number of people affected Article People affected(millions)Population affected(%) Location DateDuration (days) References 2012 India blackouts 620 22023 Pakistan blackout24499 1 2001 India blackout 230 1 2022 Bangladesh blackout 14080 12021 Pakistan blackout20090 1 2014 Bangladesh blackout 15085 1 2015 Pakistan blackout 140 1 2019 Java blackout 120 2 2005 Java–Bali blackout1001 1999 Southern Brazil blackout 97 104 2015 Turkey blackout 70 1 2009 Brazil and Paraguay blackout 60 , 11 2003 Italy blackout 56 , 1 Northeast blackout of 2003 55 , 3 2025 Iberian Peninsula blackout 55 , , , 3 2019 Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay blackout 48 , , 1 2002 Luzon blackout 40 1 2001 Luzon blackout 35 1 Northeast blackout of 1965 30 , 1 2019 Venezuelan blackouts 30 139 2020 Sri Lankan blackouts 21 1 2016 Sri Lanka blackout 21 1 2025 Chile blackout 18 2
Biggest by impact in person-hours 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. ArticlePeople affected (millions)LocationLength (in customer-hours)References2013 Philippines blackouts6.76.3 billion hoursNovember-December 2025 Aceh blackouts5.6, 4.8 billion hours2017 Puerto Rico blackouts1.53.4 billion hours2019 Venezuelan blackouts30 >3.3 billion hours
Chronology 1960s
1962 January 23—Sweden—Approximately 50,000 people in the city of Södertälje lost power for between four and 20 hours after an explosion at the substation supplying the city. A 70 kV circuit breaker exploded at a routine switching operation, the oil mist released from the damaged breaker caused a bigger explosion that demolished the whole upper floor of the substation building which contained the 70 kV switchgear. Emergency repairs were delayed because all transformers in the substation were more or less damaged.
1965 November 9—United States and Canada—The Northeast blackout of 1965 affected portions of seven northeastern U.S. states and Ontario. Most radio and television stations within the area lost power or lost teletype communications, so people within the blackout area relied on broadcasts from other areas to learn information about the blackout.
1969 August 5—United States—A 50-mile (80 km) stretch of Florida's Gold Coast was hit with a general power failure after an explosion at the Cutler Ridge facility. The outage affected more than 2 million people, and created a vast traffic jam. Miami and Fort Lauderdale downtown areas were offline for almost two hours, with other areas dark for much longer periods.
1970s 1971 February 7—United States—On that evening, power in parts of the New York City borough of Manhattan was lost for over four hours. The power outage was originally thought to have been caused by an explosion at Con Ed's Waterside power facility on 40th Street and 1st Avenue in Manhattan, but the cause was later suspected to be a result of a fault in a transformer at a substation on 13th Street. New York City television and FM radio stations that transmit from the Empire State Building were off the air. AM radio stations were largely unaffected, as most of their transmitters were located in either Northern New Jersey (e.g. WABC (AM)) or on High Island (e.g. WCBS (AM)) in the Bronx, which was not affected by the blackout. However, several Manhattan AM station studios were affected due to insufficient power backups. Several lines of the IND and IRT subway lines were affected, stranding passengers. At Grand Central Terminal power in the building was lost, but power on the tracks was retained because it ran on direct current. The New York Daily News was also affected when the blackout caused their printing facility to halt operations.
1973 January 14—Sweden—Approximately 25,000 people in the city of Härnösand and nearby countryside suffered a power failure of up to 40 hours after a fire and explosion in the underground substation at Murberget. The cause of the fire could not be determined but there are at least two plausible theories. One theory says that a 6 kV underground cable was shorted and caught fire outside the station, the fault was never switched off because the DC supply for the protective relays was not working for some reason, the fire spread to other cables and inside the station where soot and smoke caused busbar shorts and arc explosions. The other theory also says that it was initiated by a short in an outgoing 6 kV cable but a malfunctioning protective relay caused a breaker to reclose against the short several times until it exploded. In the aftermath, recruits from the Härnösand Coastal Artillery Regiment were engaged in cleaning up the usable parts of the substation which caused criticism as the recruits had been subjected to carcinogenic debris, strong solvents and possibly residues of PCB or dioxins, with neither knowledge, training nor sufficient protection.
1976 July 4—United States—A major power failure affected most of Utah and parts of Wyoming for 1.5 to 6 hours.
1977 May 10—Romania—A nationwide blackout that lasted 5 hours caused US$1 billion losses, larger than the Vrancea earthquake on March 4. Subsequent investigations showed it was caused by human error. May 17—United States—Parts of South Florida were blacked out after a malfunctioning relay caused the Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station in Miami to go offline. July 13–14 —United States—In New York City, 9 million people were affected by a power outage. It was a result of a transmission failure due to a lightning strike on power lines. A second lightning strike caused the loss of two more overhead power lines, and the last power connection between New York City and the Northwest. The power outage resulted in high instances of looting occurring over 26 hours. September 20—Canada—A power outage covered almost the entire province of Quebec, affecting two million people, after a failure at the Montagnais Substation along a series of 735 kV transmission lines connecting to the Churchill Falls Generating Station in Labrador. Power was restored to scattered rural areas within an hour and service was brought back to parts of Montreal and Quebec City within two hours; it took several hours to fully restore power.
1978 December 19—France—A power line overload caused a 4 hour outage in the French mainland.
1980s
1981 January 8—United States—Prisoners on a work assignment burning trash and debris at the Utah State Prison in Draper, accidentally caused a major power failure when something they were burning exploded, causing a fireball that shorted out transmission lines above them. 1.5 million people lost power, in almost all of Utah, as well as parts of southeastern Idaho and southwestern Wyoming.
1982 December 22—United States—A transmission tower near Tracy, California collapsed onto an adjacent tower bringing down two 500-kV lines and a pair of 230-kV lines that passed underneath the 500-kV right of way. Total loss of 12,530 MW affected approximately five million people on the west coast.
1983 December 27—Sweden—Two-thirds of the country's network was shut down when a single component in a switching station failed, causing a short circuit in a transformer. This affected about 4.5million people in the more densely populated southern half.
1985 May 17—United States—Most of South Florida was blacked out after a brush fire in the Everglades damaged overhead transmission lines. Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and the Florida Keys lost power for about 3.5 hours. About 4.5 million people were affected.
1987 October 16—United Kingdom—The Great Storm of 1987 interrupted the High-Voltage Cross-Channel Link between the UK and France. The storm caused a domino effect of power outages throughout South East England.
1989 March 13—Canada—The March 1989 geomagnetic storm caused the Hydro-Québec power failure which left seven million people in Quebec without power for over nine hours. October 17—United States—The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake knocked out power to about 1.4 million customers in Northern California, mainly due to damaged electrical substations.
1990s 1991 July 7—United States and Canada—A powerful wind storm affected a large portion of central North America and caused power outages for about one million customers from Iowa to Ontario.
1992 August 24—United States—As Hurricane Andrew passed over the northern Florida Keys it downed 17 miles (27 km) of power lines, breaking the wooden poles they were strung on, along a path that was in four feet (122 cm) of water, stretching from the Turkey Point Nuclear Plant southward to the upper Keys. The shallow depth prevented the use of large construction barge cranes for rebuilding the power pylons but the water was too deep for land-based construction vehicles. As a result, the Upper and Middle Keys were largely without power for several months as the Middle Keys Electric Co-op only had generating capacity for 10% of its demand. The power lines heading north to Miami were restored much more quickly, as they were strung along the side of US Highway 1 on dry land. Key West power was in the process of decommissioning an end-of-life oil-fired plant and was able to restore 75% generating capacity for the lower keys in one day as there was no storm damage that far south. Key West power was in the process of converting to sourcing 100% of its electricity from the Turkey Point facility.
1995 October 4—United States and Canada—Hurricane Opal, which killed at least 59 people, knocked out power to over two million customers across eastern and southern North America.
1996 July 2–3—United States, Canada and Mexico—Two million people lost power due to a transmission line overheating (the temperature was around 38 °C/100 °F) in Idaho and a 230-kV line between Montana and Idaho tripping. Some customers were without power for minutes, while others were without for hours. August 10—United States and Mexico—the Western Intertie buckled under the high summer heat of the 1996 Western North America blackouts, causing a cascading power failure affecting nine western U.S. states and parts of Mexico. Four million people were affected. Power was out in some locations for four days. November 19—United States—A severe ice storm affected the region around Spokane, Washington and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho causing power outages lasting up to two weeks.
1998 January—United States and Canada—The North American Ice Storm of 1998 caused prolonged blackouts in northeastern North America, particularly in Quebec, where many transmission towers were destroyed by ice. Over 3.5 million customers in total lost power during the event. January 3—Philippines—A broken power line caused by a falling Meralco utility post in Laguna led to a power interruption that affected the entire island of Luzon for almost 7 hours."NEWSFLASH: 7-hour power outage darkens Luzon" PHNO. 01-04-1998. Retrieved 03-31-2022. February 19–March 27—New Zealand—The 1998 Auckland power crisis resulted in the entire Central Business District of Auckland being without power for several weeks, after a line failure caused a chain reaction leading to the failure of three other lines.