Dakota Electric Association, MN
How often Dakota Electric Association goes out
Outages at Dakota Electric Association are uncommon. Minnesota customers on this grid saw 0.4 interruptions in the most recent year on file, 29 minutes total - well under the national median. That is 84% less outage time than the Minnesota state average of 3 hours a year.
Outage length, and what it means for a generator
Outages here typically run short, about 82 minutes before power is back - a battery power station or small portable generator should cover the essentials through most of them. Why outage length, not count, picks the backup: how often vs how long.
What this means for buying a generator
Most Dakota Electric Association customers keep power almost all year. Serving 117,505 customers here, You probably do not need a generator unless you already have another reason to want one.
The source behind this number
Dakota Electric Association filed these numbers itself, as a member-owned cooperative, under EIA Form 861 - a federal reliability report covering its entire Minnesota territory, serving 117,505 customers here, not a single street or outage. Every other utility in Minnesota is covered too: see Minnesota's full record. The full scoring method lives in the methodology guide.