Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) Outage Cost Calculator
Public Safety Power Shutoffs are a uniquely predictable and repeating category of outage risk — unlike a storm or equipment failure, PSPS events are planned by utilities in advance of dangerous fire weather, and businesses in high-risk areas can expect them to recur multiple times per season. This calculator estimates the cost per PSPS event and the total annual PSPS cost a facility faces, from the estimated outage cost rate, the average PSPS event duration, and the number of PSPS events per year. It pairs naturally with our planned Microgrid Payback Period Calculator for evaluating whether on-site resilience investment pays off against these recurring losses, and our planned Resilience Value of Lost Load Calculator for a broader view of outage exposure across all outage types.
Based on a real, documented example from a California luxury hotel that reported approximately $500,000 in losses from 2019 Public Safety Power Shutoff events, working out to roughly $6,799/hour of outage. Cost rates vary enormously by business type -- a grocery store, for comparison, can lose upwards of $30,000 in a single day-long outage.
PSPS events are typically called ahead of high fire-risk weather conditions and commonly last 24-72+ hours depending on how long dangerous conditions persist.
Facilities in wildfire-prone utility service territories can experience multiple PSPS events across a single fire season, particularly in high-risk areas of California and other Western states.
estimated outage cost rate ($/hour) × average PSPS event duration (hours)
cost per event ($) × PSPS events per year
Results update live as you type. For planning and field-check estimates — always verify against applicable standards and equipment ratings.
How we calculate this →Public Safety Power Shutoffs are a uniquely predictable and repeating category of outage risk -- unlike a storm or equipment failure, PSPS events are planned by utilities in advance of dangerous fire weather, and businesses in high-risk areas can expect them to recur multiple times per season. At a real documented cost rate of $6,799/hour for a mid-sized commercial facility, three 48-hour events in a single year add up to nearly $1 million in losses -- a genuinely striking number that explains why California businesses in wildfire-prone areas have been early and aggressive adopters of microgrid and backup power technology specifically to island themselves from PSPS events rather than simply absorbing the losses.
How PSPS outage cost is calculated
This calculator estimates the cost of a single Public Safety Power Shutoff event and the total annual PSPS cost a facility faces, from the estimated outage cost rate, the average PSPS event duration, and the number of PSPS events per year. Two quantities tie the calculation together.
Cost per Event ($) = Estimated Outage Cost Rate ($/hour) × Average PSPS Event Duration (hours). The estimated outage cost rate is the dollar value of lost revenue, spoiled inventory, idle labor, and other outage-driven losses per hour of interrupted power; the average PSPS event duration is how long a typical shutoff lasts. Multiplying the hourly cost rate by the event duration gives the dollar loss from a single PSPS event. At the defaults ($6,799/hour and 48 hours), that is $6,799 × 48 = $326,352.
Total Annual PSPS Cost ($) = Cost per Event ($) × PSPS Events per Year. The number of PSPS events per year reflects how often a facility in a wildfire-prone utility territory is actually shut off across a fire season. Multiplying the per-event cost by the annual event count gives the total recurring PSPS loss exposure for the year. At the defaults ($326,352 per event and 3 events/year), that is $326,352 × 3 = $979,056.
Two notes on the model. First, the estimated outage cost rate is a single representative figure, appropriate for a planning-level estimate of PSPS exposure -- but actual hourly outage cost varies enormously by business type (a restaurant or grocery store with perishable inventory and immediate customer-facing operations loses money very differently than an office-based business that can shift work hours or a manufacturing facility with different inventory buffering), facility size, and the specific operations interrupted, so the editable field lets you substitute a business-specific figure. Second, this calculator reports direct outage loss cost only and does not model the cost of mitigation measures (on-site generation and storage, backup generators, microgrids) that can island a facility and avoid these losses (see the planned Microgrid Payback Period Calculator for evaluating whether that investment pays off), the broader value of lost load across all outage types not just PSPS (see the planned Resilience Value of Lost Load Calculator), the indirect and reputational costs of repeated outages (customer churn, contract penalties, insurance premiums), the probability distribution of PSPS event duration and frequency rather than average figures, or the effect of advance notice (utilities typically warn 24-48+ hours ahead) on how much loss can actually be mitigated through preparation -- all of which a full resilience planning evaluation would include. Data sources: documented ~$500,000 loss from 2019 PSPS events at a California luxury hotel working out to ~$6,799/hour from public PSPS impact reporting and utility resilience filings; typical PSPS event duration of 24-72+ hours from California utility Wildfire Mitigation Plans and CPUC PSPS event reporting; multiple PSPS events per fire season in high-risk utility territories from CPUC and utility PSPS event summaries. Verification: with defaults ($6,799/hour, 48 hours, 3 events/year), Cost per Event = $326,352, Total Annual PSPS Cost = $979,056.