American households experienced 11 hours of power outages in 2024 -- nearly double the prior decade's average -- and reliability is getting worse, not better

U.S. electricity customers experienced an average of 11 hours of power interruptions in 2024, nearly double the annual average of the prior decade (2014-2023). Major event interruptions alone averaged 9 hours, compared to roughly 4 hours/year in the preceding decade. The ASCE downgraded U.S. energy infrastructure from C- to D+ in its 2025 report card. Why it matters: 11 hours of annual outage time means a typical American household loses power for a full waking day each year, so families with electric-dependent medical equipment (CPAP machines, insulin refrigeration, home dialysis) face life-threatening interruptions. Life-threatening risk drives those families to buy backup generators and batteries, so households bear $1,000-10,000 in private resilience costs that should be covered by the utility service they already pay for. The deteriorating reliability trend means homeowners and businesses lose confidence in grid-supplied power, so demand for behind-the-meter solar+storage accelerates among those who can afford it. Wealthier customers defecting from the grid reduce the ratepayer base, so remaining customers (disproportionately lower-income) bear a larger share of fixed grid maintenance costs -- a utility death spiral. The death spiral further reduces utility revenue available for infrastructure investment, so the reliability decline accelerates. The structural root cause is that 70% of U.S. transmission lines are over 25 years old, 60% of circuit breakers are over 30 years old, and utilities have prioritized replacing existing equipment ($63 billion in 2024) over building new resilient infrastructure ($32 billion in 2024). Meanwhile, extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and severity, stressing aging equipment beyond its design parameters.