I've been on planet earth for a long time now. Long enough to remember when the power went out, it was a huge deal because it rarely happened wherever I have lived in Maine. After two winters in a row with at least one power outage and a few here and there during the warmer seasons, something seems to have changed making me wonder if it's just me or if this is happening to other Mainers too. Turns out it's not just me.

According to WMTW and the Associated Press, thinking our power is going out a lot more can be backed up by the data. Maine has seen at least a 50% increase in the length of power outages over the past several years.

linemen in utility truck working on electrical equipment
Christine_Kohler
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Like everything right now, the cost of maintaining Maine's power grid is going through the roof. The lines are old and the equipment is outdated which means they fail more often. That translates into higher bills for customers as utilities have to pass the costs on to us. Not to mention the recent 83% increase in the cost of supply of electricity and the 11.5% increase in the cost of delivery of that electricity for Mainers. Things are just getting expensive.

But the Associated Press also determined that global warming is also a cause of more power outages as well. As the air gets warmer, especially here in Maine during the winter, there's a better chance of icing and this past winter Maine saw a few stores that were a mix of precipitation that can bring down trees and powerlines with them.

Ice storm in Toronto
Getty Stock / ThinkStock
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The AP says that outages due to weather like this rose from 50 a year nationwide two decades ago to more than 100 a year over the past five years.

So yeah. Your power is going out more than it use to. Just another reason that electric bill keeps going up.

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