Gaithersburg, Maryland Power Outage Today

How reliable is Pepco service in Gaithersburg?

Pepco is an investor-owned utility with 600,103 customers. In 2024 its customers averaged 0.59 interruptions and 65 minutes (65 minutes) without power, so the average outage lasted 110 minutes.

Major event days, the severe-weather days that utilities report separately, made up about 29% of that time. Without them the average is 46 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 110 minutes on average.

For comparison, Maryland as a whole averaged 118 minutes and the United States 614 minutes. That puts Pepco below the state average, which is better.

Among the 7 utilities in Maryland with at least 5,000 customers that report to the federal government, Pepco ranks 2nd for the fewest outage minutes (1 is best). Nationally, 79% 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 Gaithersburg

NOAA’s Storm Events Database lists 880 storm reports for Montgomery County from 2015 through 2026, most often thunderstorm wind (495), flood (166), flash flood (144), and hail (59). The busiest full year was 2019 with 124 reports and the quietest was 2024 with 36, so the risk changes a lot from one year to the next.

Reports peak in July (248 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 Montgomery 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 Gaithersburg do to the grid:

• 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.
• 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.
• Tornado. A tornado destroys poles and lines along its path. Repairs there mean rebuilding rather than reconnecting, so restoration takes days instead of hours.

Storm reports that name Gaithersburg

Within Montgomery County, 25 NOAA storm reports since 2015 name Gaithersburg as their location or in their description: thunderstorm wind (22), hail (2), and tornado (1). That is about 3% of the county’s reports, so most of the county’s weather history happened elsewhere. Reports naming Gaithersburg are most common in June. The busiest full year was 2020 with 6. These reports record 5 injuries in total.

Who a power outage hits hardest in Gaithersburg

53.4% of occupied homes in Gaithersburg are heated with piped natural gas, and 43.1% 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 14.1% of the population in Gaithersburg, below the US share of 17.2% and 10.3% 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 Pepco whether it keeps a priority or medical-needs list, and register before the next storm rather than during it.

About the housing: 11.2% of the housing in Gaithersburg was built before 1970 (US 35.5%), so most homes are newer and more of the local lines are likely to be buried or recently replaced; 22.1% of homes are in buildings with 20 or more units (US 10.3%), where an outage also stops elevators and water pumps, which matters for upper floors and anyone who cannot use stairs; 49.2% of households rent (US 34.8%), so many residents depend on a landlord to restore building systems and cannot add a generator or battery themselves.

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

Backup power and electricity use in Gaithersburg

The average Pepco home used about 830 kWh a month in 2024 (US average 892 kWh), an average draw of 1.1 kW around the clock, and paid about 20.1 cents per kWh (17.5 in the state, 15.8 nationally), roughly $167 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 110 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 Gaithersburg

About 69,889 people live in Gaithersburg, the 3rd largest of the 5 Maryland cities on this site. Report the outage to the utility so a ticket exists for your address, then check Pepco’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.

Gaithersburg power outage map

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

Gaithersburg power outage questions