Trees and other plants benefit our electric system, from providing shade that helps reduce energy usage to forming natural barriers for security purposes. Yet, vegetation presents some of the biggest threats to electric reliability. Outside of damage from contact with lines and other equipment, whether in storms or regular conditions, trees are also how wildlife (like squirrels) can reach equipment.
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| In 2023, public power utilities reported about 16% of all outages were caused by trees.1 |
This is less than a 2019 survey by CNUC, which found that 23% of outages, and 21.7% of outage minutes across all utility types, were attributable to trees.2
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| 41% of public power tree-related outages occurred in the summer (from June – August). |
The Department of Energy estimates that outages cost Americans $150 billion per year. Utilities focus on vegetation management to reduce outages and the ensuing costs to the community.
Annual spending on vegetation management
| All utilities | Average per utility |
| $6-8 billion3 | $27 million4 |
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| 52.9% of utilities indicated their vegetation management budget was not sufficient.5 |
Yet, studies have shown that improved vegetation management can reduce storm-related damage from trees by as much as 63%.6
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Sources:
- 2023 data from eReliability Tracker
- Utility Vegetation Management in North America, CNUC, 2019.
- Vegetation Management: Key Levers for Cost Savings. Accenture.
- CNUC
- Ibid
- A Statistical Framework for Evaluating the Effectiveness of Vegetation Management in Reducing Power Outages Caused during Storms in Distribution Networks. January 2022.
