Black Hills Electric Coop, Inc, SD
How often Black Hills Electric Coop, Inc goes out
41.4 hours without electricity across 3.4 separate outages - Black Hills Electric Coop, Inc's record for South Dakota puts it near the bottom of every utility on file. That is 826% more outage time than the South Dakota state average of 4.5 hours a year.
Outage length, and what it means for a generator
Outages here average 12.2 hours before power returns. At that length, continuous fuel supply matters more than stored capacity, which favors a standby generator over anything battery-based. More on that split in how often versus how long an outage runs.
What this means for buying a generator
Serving 11,466 customers here, With a record this bad, a backup generator at Black Hills Electric Coop, Inc is close to essential - check your options before the next outage, not during it.
Where this number comes from
These figures come from EIA Form 861, the reliability report a member-owned cooperative like Black Hills Electric Coop, Inc files with federal regulators every year - serving 11,466 customers hereaveraged across the whole territory, not any one address or storm. See South Dakota as a whole, across every utility that filed: South Dakota's outage record. One big storm can move a single year a lot; major event days explains how.