New Jersey residents are dealing with a significant increase in electricity costs beginning June 1, as much as 20% in some regions of the state. Garden State residents can take solace in the fact that they are not alone in facing possible power impacts. A new study from Isanti, Minn.-based solar power company Wolf River Electric looked at outage data from 2019 to 2023 to see where power reductions will hit hardest in the country.
The Midwest and South receive the worst hits, enduring both the most frequent and longest outages, while the West Coast and Northeast generally experience fewer and shorter summer blackouts.
Michigan ranks first for summer power outages, with more than 12,000 major events and more than 34,000 hours without electricity annually.
Texas has the longest average blackout time, with over 35,000 hours per year despite fewer outages than Michigan, making its outages especially difficult during hot months.
California was third, experiencing frequent outages (6,000+) but recovering power faster, with average outage times significantly lower than Michigan and Texas.
New Jersey ranked 25th on the list in the number of major outages (May–August 2019–2023) with 101 and the average annual outage hours (May–August 2019–2023) with 1,585.
In an effort to blunt the impact of higher electricity costs beginning June 1, the utility PSE&G Tuesday announced that it is implementing a summer relief initiative intended to shield qualified residential electric customers from disconnection, while seeking approval from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) to provide New Jerseyans relief on their summer electric bills.
The Wolf River Electric study ranked US states most at risk for summer power outages by analyzing data from the Event Correlated Outage Dataset in America (2019–2023). The data includes outage events affecting 5,000 or more customers during the summer months of May through August each year. The ranking was based primarily on the total number of major outages per state over the last five summers. States with a higher number of outages appeared higher on the list.
