In 2017, Americans experienced electricity interruptions totaling almost eight hours, which is double the number of hours in 2016, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
The spike in electricity outages was caused by natural disasters such as hurricanes and winter storms. The states that experienced the most time without electricity were Maine, Florida, New Hampshire, Georgia and Vermont. According to the EIA, the average customer interruption time in these five states ranged from 15 hours in Vermont to 42 hours in Maine.
Puerto Rico experienced the most amount of time without electricity due to Hurricane Maria, but that data was not including in this EIA report. Since the storm, regulators on the island have introduced a clean energy bill that would put Puerto Rico on the path to getting 100% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2050.
The bill calls for 20% renewable electricity by 2025, 50% by 2040, and 100% by 2050. California recently passed a similar bill, with a goal of 100% renewables by 2045. Hawaii passed a similar law in 2015, and this June, added another law with the goal of becoming fully carbon neutral.
