Pennsylvania recorded 55 major electric outages in 2025, a sharp drop from the record 71 the year before, according to a new report from the state’s Public Utility Commission released this week. Despite the improvement in frequency, the number of customers actually affected barely moved — nearly 2.9 million Pennsylvanians lost power at some point during the year, almost identical to 2024’s total.

The report attributes the vast majority of last year’s outages to severe weather, with 52 of the 55 reportable incidents tied to storms. Notably, the number of customers caught up in the most severe “Major Events” roughly doubled year over year, climbing from about 696,000 in 2024 to 1.7 million in 2025 — meaning outages happened less often but tended to hit harder when they did.

Performance varied widely among Pennsylvania’s 11 electric utilities. PPL Electric logged the most reportable outages statewide at 15, followed by Met-Ed with 11 and West Penn Power with 10, while four utilities — Citizens, Pike Electric, UGI Electric and Wellsboro — reported none at all. Even so, the PUC noted that most utilities improved on key reliability benchmarks compared with the previous year, including faster restoration times and shorter overall outage durations.

PUC Chairman Steve DeFrank framed the year’s results as a mixed picture — meaningful gains on paper, but not necessarily a year that felt any easier for households who lost power. He pointed to the commission’s continued focus on strengthening infrastructure and improving how utilities prepare for and respond to severe weather, calling it essential as storms continue to test the state’s grid. As part of its ongoing oversight, the commission also completed a “Resiliency Deep Dive” this year examining how extreme weather affects the grid, identifying wind-speed thresholds where outage risk begins climbing sharply — research officials say could help utilities better anticipate and prepare for future storms.