Power Outages in Rice County, MN
As of October 19, 2026 12:50 UTC, no outages are reported by Minnesota Valley Electric Coop and Northern States Power Co - Minnesota in Rice County, MN. Dakota Electric Association, Goodhue County Coop Elec Assn and Steele-Waseca Cooperative Electric have not reported outages here, but they only publishactive outages, so that isn't a confirmed all-clear. In 2025, the average customer here lost power for about 2.5 hours.
Rice County, MN is served by 5 tracked utilities.
Cite this data
- URL
- https://massoutage.com/minnesota/rice-county
- As of
- October 19, 2026 12:50 UTC
- Publisher
- MassOutage
MassOutage, "Power Outages in Rice County, MN", live data as of October 19, 2026 12:50 UTC. https://massoutage.com/minnesota/rice-county
No active outages are reported by Minnesota Valley Electric Coop and Northern States Power Co - Minnesota in Rice County.
Dakota Electric Association, Goodhue County Coop Elec Assn and Steele-Waseca Cooperative Electric only appearin feeds while reporting outages, so no report isn't a confirmed all-clear.
3.6%of this county's ~29,238 customers are served by utilities with a county-level live feed.
Only visible while reporting outages: Dakota Electric Association, Goodhue County Coop Elec Assn, Steele-Waseca Cooperative Electric. Zero here is not a confirmed all-clear.
| Utility | Feed | Out | Served | % out | Small outages | Incidents | Utility ETR | As of |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minnesota Valley Electric Coop | Live · county | 0 | 1,058 | 0.0% | - | - | - | |
| Dakota Electric Association | Outages only | none reported | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Goodhue County Coop Elec Assn | Outages only | none reported | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Northern States Power Co - Minnesota | Live · county | 0 | - | - | - | 0 | - | |
| Steele-Waseca Cooperative Electric | Outages only | none reported | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Minnesota Valley Electric Coop and Northern States Power Co - Minnesota reportevery town in the county on each poll, so 0 out is a real all-clear. ETRs are the utility's own estimates.
Electricity-dependent residents
HHS emPOWER · data October 7, 2026Medicare beneficiaries in Rice Countywho rely on electricity-dependent medical equipment (ventilators, oxygen concentrators, home dialysis, powered wheelchairs, and more). HHS reports counts of 1–10 as “≤11”. Medicare only, so the full at-risk population is larger.
By ZIP code (8)
| ZIP | Power-dependent | Ventilators | O2 concentrators | Home dialysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55021 | 237 | ≤11 | 170 | ≤11 |
| 55057 | 141 | ≤11 | 88 | ≤11 |
| 55046 | 27 | ≤11 | 17 | 0 |
| 55052 | 25 | ≤11 | 19 | 0 |
| 55088 | ≤11 | ≤11 | ≤11 | 0 |
| 55087 | ≤11 | 0 | ≤11 | 0 |
| 55053 | ≤11 | 0 | ≤11 | ≤11 |
| 55019 | ≤11 | 0 | ≤11 | 0 |
Emergency managers can request identified beneficiary lists through their state health department via the HHS emPOWER program.
Outage began, grew, restoration estimate changed, restored: by email, Slack, Teams, Discord or signed webhook, for Rice County or any town and utility in it.
No active NWS alerts for Rice County right now.
Rice County has been under 7 National Weather Service alerts recently, most recently a Freeze Warning on October 17, 2026.
- Freeze Warning ×4
- Dense Fog Advisory ×2
- Freeze Watch ×1
Latest Rice County, MN outage updates
A running log of how this outage has changed, updated automatically as utilities report in.
- RESOLVED
Power restored after 3h 15m
- RESTORATION ETA
Restoration now estimated September 18, 2026
- OUTAGE BEGAN
Outage began: 311 customers out (1.1% of the county)
- RESOLVED
Power restored after 2h 55m
- RESTORATION ETA
Restoration now estimated September 18, 2026
- OUTAGE BEGAN
Outage began: 3,062 customers out (10% of the county)
Hardest-hit cities in Rice County
Where this event is concentrated across the county's towns and townships.
Historical reliability
In 2025, the average customer in Rice County went about 2.5 hours without power. Peak simultaneous outage on record reached 12,884 customers.
The US EIA reports Minnesota utilities averaged 3.0 hrs without power per customer (SAIDI) in 2025, a cross-check on our county estimate of 2.5 hrs.
Worst year here was 2018 (peak 8,760 customers out) · decade average 2.5 hrs without power per customer/yr.
| Year | Outage events | Peak customers out | Avg hrs/customer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 296 | 2,556 | 0.9 |
| 2016 | 282 | 12,884 | 3.5 |
| 2017 | 366 | 2,611 | 1.3 |
| 2018 | 414 | 8,760 | 9.4 |
| 2019 | 473 | 1,901 | 1.7 |
| 2020 | 411 | 1,325 | 1.4 |
| 2021 | 417 | 2,685 | 2.2 |
| 2022 | 387 | 3,893 | 1.6 |
| 2023 | 423 | 4,734 | 0.9 |
| 2024 | 466 | 3,195 | 2.5 |
| 2025 | 432 | 2,188 | 2.5 |
Cost of power in Rice County
ENERGY & AI DEMAND →Estimated residential electricity price for Rice County, customer-weighted across the utilities serving it (US EIA, 2025). Retail prices aren't published at the county level; this is a derived estimate.
- Northern States Power Co - Minnesota17.1¢1,243,236 cust
- Dakota Electric Association15.6¢109,148 cust
- Minnesota Valley Electric Coop14.4¢43,682 cust
- Steele-Waseca Cooperative Electric16.5¢10,788 cust
Weighted by each utility's residential customer count (utilities report customers at the state level; a per-county share isn't published). Rising retail prices track a national demand surge; see energy & the data-center boom.
What causes outages here
Share of outage-time by reported cause, from live ODIN utility reports. Why does my power keep going out? →
Relatively High high winds exposure · 2.5 hrs/yr of outages over the last decade.
Power outages in Rice County: FAQ
- How often does Rice County, MN lose power?
- Based on EAGLE-I records, Rice County, MN logged 432 distinct outage events in 2025, averaging about 2.5 hours without power per customer over the year.
- What was the worst power outage in Rice County, MN?
- The largest tracked outage peaked at 12,884 customers without power, beginning July 6, 2016 and lasting about 1d 23h.
- Is there a power outage in Rice County, MN right now?
- No major outage is currently reported for Rice County, MN. Live coverage depends on whether local utilities report to ODIN.
- Which utilities serve Rice County, MN?
- Tracked electric providers include Dakota Electric Association, Minnesota Valley Electric Coop, Northern States Power Co - Minnesota, Steele-Waseca Cooperative Electric.
Outages are tracked at the county level; these ZIP codes fall within Rice County.
55019, 55021, 55046, 55052, 55053, 55057, 55087, 55088
Electric providers serving this county
From EIA-861 service territory, with official reliability where reported.
| Provider | Official SAIDI (EIA) | Live | Report outage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northern States Power Co - Minnesota | 3.6 hrs | Live · county | - |
| Minnesota Valley Electric Coop | 1.5 hrs | Live · county | - |
| Steele-Waseca Cooperative Electric | 1.5 hrs | Outages only | - |
| Dakota Electric Association | 0.5 hrs | Outages only | - |
| Goodhue County Coop Elec Assn | - | Outages only | - |
Data from DOE/ORNL ODIN, DOE EAGLE-I, EIA Form 861 (utility reliability), EIA electricity retail prices and FEMA National Risk Index, every source we read. Historical figures derive from the DOE/ORNL EAGLE-I dataset (EAGLE-I tracked roughly 0% of Minnesota customers). Machine-readable data: /api/v1/counties/27131 and /api/v1/counties/27131/history.