The U.S. power system is at an elevated risk of power outages during extreme weather, with critical implications for national security, public health, and the well-being of society. However, there is a dearth of research on how power outages affect the most vulnerable communities across the U.S. due to limited publicly available sub-county level outages data. The main research question is: How does reliability vary across socioeconomic and geographic characteristics in urban areas of the U.S.? The article focuses on ZIP code-level outage data and uses geospatial and statistical analyses to examine the variation in electrical reliability across socioeconomic demographics in Seattle and Portland. The article further examines the within- and between-city heterogeneity in the associations across the two cities characterized by distinct utility governance structures. Key findings include: (1) socioeconomically disadvantaged ZIP codes in Seattle experienced significantly longer restoration times (CAIDI); (2) multivariate analyses yielded no evidence of statistically significant associations between socioeconomic covariates and grid reliability metrics after controlling for geographic covariates; (3) distance to nearest hospital emerged as the strongest and most consistent association with total outage duration (SAIDI) and frequency (SAIFI) across both cities; and (4) heterogeneity testing revealed significant between-city differences, suggesting utility governance structure influences equity outcomes. Our findings underline the importance of studying the power outage dynamics with granular, sub-county data. The major policy implications of this research underline the need for policy intervention to address the heterogeneous distribution of reliable electricity service across communities. • Utilizes ZIP code-level power outage data to examine socioeconomic disparities in reliability. • Disadvantaged ZIP codes had longer restoration times in Seattle. • Proximity to hospitals is associated with improved reliability in Seattle and Portland. • Spatially granular data reveals within- and between-city heterogeneity of outage patterns. • Findings provide evidence that utility governance structure can shape grid equity outcomes.
Chelminski et al. (Wed,) studied this question.