Power Outages in Buncombe County, NC
Is there a power outage in Buncombe County, NC right now? Yes. As of October 19, 2026 15:05 UTC, about 23 customers are without power in Buncombe County, NC across 2 reported incidents. There is no live feed for Duke Energy, so outages in their service area aren't counted.
Buncombe County, NC is served by 5 tracked utilities. In 2025, the average customer here lost power for about 3.8 hours.
Cite this data
- URL
- https://massoutage.com/north-carolina/buncombe-county
- As of
- October 19, 2026 15:05 UTC
- Publisher
- MassOutage
MassOutage, "Power Outages in Buncombe County, NC", live data as of October 19, 2026 15:05 UTC. https://massoutage.com/north-carolina/buncombe-county
- Duke Energy Progress - (NC)
- French Broad Elec Member Corp
Not counted: no live feed for Duke Energy.
Report an outage in Buncombe County, NC
Report it to your electric utility; MassOutage can't take reports. For a downed line, stay at least 35 feet away and call 911.
No outage contact on file for Duke Energy Progress - (NC), Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC, Haywood Electric Member Corp, Duke Energy and French Broad Elec Member Corp; check your electric bill or the utility's website.
1.4%of this county's ~181,010 customers are served by utilities with a county-level live feed.
We can't see outages for: Duke Energy. Their customers are not in any number on this page; check their own outage maps.
| Utility | Feed | Out | Served | % out | Small outages | Incidents | Utility ETR | As of |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Haywood Electric Member Corp | Live · county | 0 | 2,540 | 0.0% | - | - | - | |
| Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC | Live · county | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | |
| Duke Energy Progress - (NC) | Live · county | 20 | - | - | - | - | - | |
| French Broad Elec Member Corp | Live · county | 1 | - | - | - | 1 | - | |
| Duke Energy | No live feed | can't see | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Haywood Electric Member Corp, Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC, Duke Energy Progress - (NC) and French Broad Elec Member Corp reportevery town in the county on each poll, so 0 out is a real all-clear. ETRs are the utility's own estimates.
Active outages in Buncombe County1
Individual outages as listed by French Broad Elec Member Corp, largest first. “<N” means the utility only publishes that the outage affects fewer than N customers.
| Customers | Cause | Crew status | Utility ETR | Started | Utility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | - | - | - | - | French Broad Elec Member Corp |
Electricity-dependent residents
HHS emPOWER · data October 7, 2026Medicare beneficiaries in Buncombe 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 (15)
| ZIP | Power-dependent | Ventilators | O2 concentrators | Home dialysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28715 | 363 | ≤11 | 309 | ≤11 |
| 28806 | 362 | ≤11 | 289 | ≤11 |
| 28803 | 355 | ≤11 | 258 | ≤11 |
| 28787 | 274 | ≤11 | 220 | ≤11 |
| 28704 | 215 | 12 | 156 | ≤11 |
| 28804 | 207 | ≤11 | 140 | ≤11 |
| 28748 | 207 | ≤11 | 174 | 0 |
| 28805 | 186 | ≤11 | 144 | ≤11 |
| 28711 | 169 | ≤11 | 130 | ≤11 |
| 28801 | 147 | ≤11 | 111 | ≤11 |
| 28778 | 125 | ≤11 | 97 | ≤11 |
| 28730 | 109 | ≤11 | 86 | ≤11 |
| 28701 | 44 | ≤11 | 33 | ≤11 |
| 28709 | 33 | ≤11 | 26 | 0 |
| 28757 | ≤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 Buncombe County or any town and utility in it.
No active NWS alerts for Buncombe County right now.
Buncombe County has been under 53 National Weather Service alerts recently, most recently a Freeze Warning on October 18, 2026.
- Flood Advisory ×13
- Special Weather Statement ×10
- Flash Flood Warning ×9
- Flood Watch ×7
- Wind Advisory ×5
- High Wind Warning ×5
Latest Buncombe County, NC outage updates
A running log of how this outage has changed, updated automatically as utilities report in.
- RESOLVED
Power restored after 2h 16m
- IMPROVING
Improving: down to 223 customers out
- OUTAGE BEGAN
Outage began: 686 customers out (2.1% of the county)
- RESOLVED
Power restored after 13h 35m
- OUTAGE BEGAN
Outage began: 340 customers out (1.0% of the county)
- RESOLVED
Power restored after 2h 41m
- IMPROVING
Improving: down to 461 customers out
- GREW
Outage grew to 2,042 customers out (6.3% of the county)
Hardest-hit cities in Buncombe County
Where this event is concentrated across the county's towns and townships.
Live outage counts are tracked at the county level; a city-by-city split within Buncombe Countyisn't available yet.
Historical reliability
In 2025, the average customer in Buncombe County went about 3.8 hours without power. Peak simultaneous outage on record reached 181,010 customers.
The US EIA reports North Carolina utilities averaged 3.3 hrs without power per customer (SAIDI) in 2025, a cross-check on our county estimate of 3.8 hrs.
Worst year here was 2024 (peak 181,010 customers out) · decade average 15.6 hrs without power per customer/yr.
| Year | Outage events | Peak customers out | Avg hrs/customer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 863 | 15,809 | 2.1 |
| 2016 | 807 | 14,367 | 3.2 |
| 2017 | 686 | 18,619 | 6.9 |
| 2018 | 651 | 26,554 | 7.2 |
| 2019 | 619 | 17,785 | 3.5 |
| 2020 | 647 | 11,649 | 3.3 |
| 2021 | 651 | 15,649 | 3.2 |
| 2022 | 720 | 30,158 | 3.6 |
| 2023 | 641 | 27,327 | 4.1 |
| 2024 | 448 | 181,010 | 130.4 |
| 2025 | 569 | 20,155 | 3.8 |
Cost of power in Buncombe County
ENERGY & AI DEMAND →Estimated residential electricity price for Buncombe 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.
- Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC13.4¢1,961,108 cust
- Duke Energy Progress - (NC)15.2¢1,383,941 cust
- French Broad Elec Member Corp16.2¢36,049 cust
- Haywood Electric Member Corp16.9¢30,307 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 that adds up to each month, by state and utility: average electric bill.
Relatively High ice storms exposure · 15.6 hrs/yr of outages over the last decade.
Power outages in Buncombe County: FAQ
- How often does Buncombe County, NC lose power?
- Based on EAGLE-I records, Buncombe County, NC logged 569 distinct outage events in 2025, averaging about 3.8 hours without power per customer over the year.
- What was the worst power outage in Buncombe County, NC?
- The largest tracked outage peaked at 181,010 customers without power, beginning September 25, 2024 and lasting about 50d 11h.
- Is there a power outage in Buncombe County, NC right now?
- Yes. As of October 19, 2026 15:05 UTC, about 23 customers are without power in Buncombe County, NC across 2 reported incidents. There is no live feed for Duke Energy, so outages in their service area aren't counted.
- Which utilities serve Buncombe County, NC?
- Tracked electric providers include Duke Energy, Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC, Duke Energy Progress - (NC), French Broad Elec Member Corp, Haywood Electric Member Corp.
Asheville. Outage counts for these communities are reported at the Buncombe County level shown above.
Outages are tracked at the county level; these ZIP codes fall within Buncombe County.
28701, 28704, 28709, 28711, 28715, 28730, 28748, 28757, 28770, 28778, 28787, 28801, 28803, 28804, 28805, 28806
Electric providers serving this county
From EIA-861 service territory, with official reliability where reported. Territory is filed by county, so these are the utilities with lines anywhere in Buncombe County, not the one at a given address. All electric companies in North Carolina →
| Provider | Official SAIDI (EIA) | Live | Report outage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duke Energy Progress - (NC) | 2.9 hrs | Live · county | - |
| Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC | 3.6 hrs | Live · county | - |
| Haywood Electric Member Corp | 12.9 hrs | Live · county | - |
| Duke Energy | - | No live feed | - |
| French Broad Elec Member Corp | - | Live · county | - |
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 North Carolina customers). Machine-readable data: /api/v1/counties/37021 and /api/v1/counties/37021/history. Live data as of .