Why Rural Co-ops Lose Power More Often Than City-Owned Utilities

The gap in the filings

Grouped by who owns them, utilities' median outage time differs sharply. The median member-owned cooperative (465 records) reported 3.9 hours without power per customer; the median investor-owned utility (171) reported 3.4 hours; the median municipally-owned utility (280) reported just 58 minutes.

Why it happens

Ownership is mostly a stand-in for geography. City-owned utilities serve compact towns with short lines and many customers per mile, so one fault affects few people and crews reach it fast. Co-ops mostly exist because they serve rural areas investor-owned companies did not: long overhead lines through trees, few customers per mile, and long drives to any fault. That shows up in both how often power goes out (median 1.9 outages a year at co-ops vs 0.7 at municipal utilities) and how long each one runs (2.1 hours vs 1.6 hours).

What it means for you

If your bill comes from an electric co-op, start from the assumption that a backup plan is worth having, then check your own co-op's figure - plenty of co-ops beat the national median. If you are moving from a city utility to a rural co-op, expect a real change in how often the lights go out.

Where to go next

See the range across large utilities: Great Lakes Energy Coop, MI, Evergy Missouri West, MO, Nashville Electric Service, TN.

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