One can scan monthly summaries of outage data at the U.S. Energy Information Administration, either directly on its website or in Table B.1 of its downloadable monthly report, Electric Power Monthly. This source lists outages exceeding 50,000 customers for more than one hour as well as utility network events that may have not resulted in outages. It is based, in turn, on the results of Form OE-417 - Electric Emergency Incident and Disturbance Report, which regulated entities submit to the U.S. Department of Energy. Annual summaries can be downloaded from the Department of Energy. One can view also view quantities of reported real-time customers without power at PowerOutage.us, and can gain insight through S&C Electric’s annual report Entitled 2020 State of Commercial & Industrial Power Reliability Report, which summarizes responses from large commercial and industrial firms about their experiences.

What's the significance of this information? Power outages commonly occur, and thus require appropriate planning as a condition of operation. Is this a new finding? No .... Industry experts have pointed this out all along, and backup power systems have been around nearly as long as electrical grids. What's interesting is that this condition hasn't improved in recent years.

The S&C Report summarizes outage experiences of 255 companies averaging $4 billion in annual revenues (by our rough calculation, nearly 5 percent of the US Gross Domestic Product). It concludes:

1 Reliability has not improved over the last three years. In 2019, 21 percent of companies experienced outages monthly.
1 Power disruptions and their associated expenses have significant impact on commercial and industrial companies, leading to a growing need to install alternative reliability solutions.
1 Companies are willing to pay premiums for guaranteed power.

We invite you to review the document, noting that S&C Electric provides equipment and services primarily to the electrical transmission industry and likely self-funded the report. Nevertheless, each of the findings bears on the backup power community:

1 At ASCO, we remind people that outages should continue to be viewed as an expected operating condition, and S&C's first conclusion supports this thought.
1 When power outages do occur, the costs of disruption and recovery are substantial. If the numbers are even half as high as reported, outages of all types are expensive. Consequently, backup power systems provide real value. Nevertheless, the S&C Report addresses commercial and industrial users ... consider also mitigating outages at mission-critical facilities such as large data centers that make modern economic activity possible ... or the present demand for life-saving services at medical facilities that rely on power. Disruptions in power flow can and does have monumental impacts.
1 The willingness of companies to pay more for reliable power and their willingness to invest in alternatives again speaks to the importance of maintaining power availability. Backup power systems do this.