Colorado Springs, Colorado Power Outage Today

How reliable is Colorado Springs Utilities service in Colorado Springs?

Colorado Springs Utilities is a city-owned utility with 256,580 customers. In 2024 its customers averaged 0.87 interruptions and 63 minutes (63 minutes) without power, so the average outage lasted 72 minutes.

Major event days, the severe-weather days that utilities report separately, made up about 29% of that time. Without them the average is 45 minutes, so weather matters here but ordinary equipment faults and tree contact account for most of the total.

Outages are infrequent, fewer than one per customer a year, and each was fixed in 72 minutes on average.

For comparison, Colorado as a whole averaged 255 minutes and the United States 614 minutes. That puts Colorado Springs Utilities below the state average, which is better.

Among the 23 utilities in Colorado with at least 5,000 customers that report to the federal government, Colorado Springs Utilities ranks 6th for the fewest outage minutes (1 is best). Nationally, 80% of the 926 utilities of that size reported more outage minutes in 2024.

These are the figures the utility itself reported to the US Energy Information Administration (Form EIA-861, 2024) and describe the whole service territory, not one street. Your own address can be better or worse.

Storm season and outages in Colorado Springs

NOAA’s Storm Events Database lists 1,234 storm reports for El Paso County from 2015 through 2025, most often hail (809), heavy rain (250), flash flood (88), and thunderstorm wind (58). The busiest full year was 2023 with 277 reports and the quietest was 2017 with 36, so the risk changes a lot from one year to the next.

Reports peak in July (400 since 2015), followed by June and August. October is outside those three months, so an outage now is less likely to be weather-related.

NOAA’s own narratives name power outages in 1 storm episode in El Paso County since 2015. That count is a floor, since the database records outages only when a spotter or agency mentions them.

What the most common storm types in Colorado Springs do to the grid:

• Flash flood. Floodwater reaches ground-level transformers, meters and low-lying substations. Utilities may shut power off ahead of the water on purpose, and wading near flooded equipment can electrocute.
• Hail. Hail rarely cuts power by itself, but it often arrives with the wind and lightning that do, and it breaks solar panels, windshields and exposed utility equipment.
• Thunderstorm wind. Straight-line wind pushes trees and limbs into distribution lines. These outages are usually local, a street or a neighborhood at a time, and crews clear them circuit by circuit.

Storm reports that name Colorado Springs

Within El Paso County, 49 NOAA storm reports since 2015 name Colorado Springs as their location or in their description: flash flood (20), hail (17), thunderstorm wind (7), and lightning (1). That is about 4% of the county’s reports, so most of the county’s weather history happened elsewhere. Reports naming Colorado Springs are most common in July. The busiest full year was 2019 with 10. These reports record 5 injuries in total.

Who a power outage hits hardest in Colorado Springs

69.5% of occupied homes in Colorado Springs are heated with piped natural gas, and 27.4% with electricity (US 41.3% electric). A gas furnace still needs electricity for its blower and ignition, so a long winter outage leaves these homes cold too, though a gas supply stays on when the grid fails. Never heat a home with an oven, grill or camp stove indoors.

Residents aged 65 or older are 15.1% of the population in Colorado Springs, close to the US share of 17.2% and 13.1% report a disability (US 13.3%). These are the households most likely to depend on powered medical equipment such as oxygen concentrators, CPAP machines and refrigerated medicine. If someone in your home does, ask Colorado Springs Utilities whether it keeps a priority or medical-needs list, and register before the next storm rather than during it.

About the housing: 22.9% of the housing in Colorado Springs was built before 1970 (US 35.5%).

Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024 (housing, heating fuel, age and disability tables).

Backup power and electricity use in Colorado Springs

The average Colorado Springs Utilities home used about 619 kWh a month in 2024 (US average 892 kWh), an average draw of 0.8 kW around the clock, and paid about 14.5 cents per kWh (14.9 in the state, 15.8 nationally), roughly $90 a month.

Keeping only the essentials on (a refrigerator, router, a few lights and phone chargers, about 400 watts) through an outage that lasts the average 72 minutes takes less than 1 kWh. A portable power station or a power bank covers that; a generator is more than most households here need for a typical outage.

A generator must never run indoors, in a garage or near a window; generator and food-safety rules are in the power outage guide linked below.

If the power is out in Colorado Springs

About 478,961 people live in Colorado Springs, the 2nd largest of the 5 Colorado cities on this site. Report the outage to the utility so a ticket exists for your address, then check Colorado Springs Utilities’s outage map for an estimate. If neighbors have power and you do not, report it again: the fault may be on the line to your house alone, which is a separate repair.

Colorado Springs power outage map

Colorado Springs Utilities’s outage map has the official restoration estimate for your address; the count above comes from residents. Food and generator safety: power outage guide.

Colorado Springs power outage questions