Power Grid & Outages
Power Grid Card Explained
The Power Grid card combines public ISO/RTO operator signals with outage impact context so users can separate grid operating stress from local distribution outages.
Quick read
- Useful for
- Grid stress and outages can compound heat, cold, storms, wildfire, communications, fuel, and medical-device preparedness concerns.
- Watch
- status label, active alerts, observed stress, impact, customers tracked, outage share, counties, updated time, and source.
- Confirm with
- ISO/RTO public operator notices and ODIN outage data
- Remember
- Utility coverage is incomplete and outage markers are not precise household status. Operator stress does not mean your utility will interrupt service.
How to read this card
- Status: Normal/Advisory/Elevated/Major/Severe/Widespread/Unknown style bucket after normalizing backend status.
- One-line text: either outage share, affected counties/regions, active alerts, or ISO/RTO live context.
- Threshold guide in the hover card: Elevated can be one advisory or multi-region weak stress; Major generally needs two or more advisories or one major-region alert; Severe/Widespread require explicit emergency evidence.
- Updated: snapshot timing for the public grid/outage blend.
Hover card metrics explained
- Trigger: the strongest reason for the rating, such as active alerts, inferred stress, or outage impact.
- Active Alerts: explicit operator notices that the card can display when available.
- Observed Stress: inferred operator stress summaries when explicit emergency text is not the only signal.
- Live Regions: how many major grid regions were successfully read in the live refresh path.
- Impact: customer-outage summary when available.
- Customers tracked: denominator used for outage-share context; it may be partial coverage.
- Outage share: customers out divided by tracked customers when the denominator is trusted enough.
- Counties: affected county count where outage data supports it.
- Source: shown as ISO/RTO Live + ODIN in normal hover cards.
What can make this status change?
- An ISO/RTO posts or clears an advisory, conservation request, energy emergency, or load-shed notice.
- Outage counts or affected counties rise or fall.
- Live-region coverage succeeds or fails, changing confidence.
- Weather, heat, cold, wildfire, or fuel constraints create operator stress.
Limitations
Outage coverage is provider-dependent and can be partial. A low outage share does not guarantee a specific address has power, and grid stress does not guarantee distribution outages.
Sources and update behavior
The dashboard reads cached grid and outage snapshots. Operator feeds can be live-like but source pages and outage datasets may update at different cadences.
Visual reference
Power grid card signal map
Read the signal as one layer in a larger source stack, not as a standalone instruction.
Official/public sources
Use these links to verify current source text, update timing, and agency caveats.
FAQ
Does Major mean my power will go out?
No. It means public grid or outage signals are elevated enough for dashboard context. Your utility and local officials remain authoritative.