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Whatever and wherever it comes down to maintenance. When I lived in Inglewood, we had outages almost weekly. We probably averaged 50-75 hours unscheduled downtime per year for years. In OC they have the same provider (Edison) and probably average less than 5 hours per year unscheduled downtime.
I didn't know this was an issue. As someone that lived along the alabama gulf coast we never have any sort of power outages unless its was from a Hurricane or some moron hitting a pole (or it may be the fact of hurricanes that we have a more resilient power grid) . Even rough storms don't normally blow out the power where I am from. Not sure why it would be common enough for your mentioning elsewhere in the south.
Why do households in the South lose electricity (and all sources of heat) more frequently and for longer durations than households located in other regions of the country?
We don't. The only time I've lost electricity in the past several years was after Hurricane Sally.
But that reminds me; A couple of months ago, a car with California plates cut me off in traffic. Why are Californians such inconsiderate drivers?
Whatever and wherever it comes down to maintenance. When I lived in Inglewood, we had outages almost weekly. We probably averaged 50-75 hours unscheduled downtime per year for years. In OC they have the same provider (Edison) and probably average less than 5 hours per year unscheduled downtime.
Maintenance probably isn't as big of an issue in OC, since most of it was developed much more recently than Inglewood. But you are right that areas that are pretty close to each other can have very different levels of outages. 5 hours of unplanned downtime a year seems completely excessive to me. I've had less than 5 hours of outages over the last DECADE, but LA Dept of Water and Power has adequate generating and transmission capacity for peak demand, unlike SoCal Edison.
Things that lead to outages, in no particular order:
1. Equipment failures due to age or
2. Lack of maintenance
3. Severe weather
4. Lack of adequate generating or transmission capacity for peak demand.
The worst city I've ever lived in (in the states) for electricity reliability was an older port city on the Gulf Coast. It had a combination of an old transmission system and frequent storms with high winds. Power went out a couple of times a month from March through November, sometimes for several hours. After hurricanes, it could be a couple of weeks before power was fully restored.
It seems to me like all of the U.S. gets more frequent power outages than Europe due to widespread overground power delivery and disruptive weather events such as thunderstorms, ice storms, blizzards, hurricanes..being considerably more common than in Europe.
If I had to guess I'd say that the South/Southeast tends to experience more of those events than CA or MI for instance.
I think 'frequently' is a gross exaggeration. In the 28 years we've lived in houses, I think I've had power outages a handful of times, all of them during severe weather events. The blizzard of 93, the tornado outbreak of 2011, and when the occasional thunderstorm blows a tree down on a line.
I'll say this. In the Southern states, there is less of a tendency to clear cut trees when building residential neighborhoods.
There's a good reason for this: Shade. During the summer, when you have months of 85-90+ temperatures, the canopy of trees provides relief. It's hard to overestimate the effect. It's also why when you drive through many Southern cities, you assume you're in the country within minutes of leaving downtown? Why? Because the suburbs are all obscured by trees from the freeway.
Another thing with ice storms is that they happen infrequently. So when they do occur, there's a flurry of weaker branches snapping from the weight of the ice. Further, we tend to get more severe weather from hurricanes, severe thunderstorms, and twisters than in many parts of the country.
I live in NC and rarely have lost electricity in the 8 years I've lived in my current house. When it has happened it was usually caused by a nearby auto accident which took out a pole or something. The town I live in provides our electricity, which IMO is a good thing since it's cheaper, they do better maintenance and they respond quickly and efficiently to all outages. Being a mile from the substation with all except the major transition lines being underground also helps.
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