Track power outages in real time across the US with the Ting app

The Ting app includes a caller powerfulness outage representation for the US.

There’s a new, escaped instrumentality to assistance Americans show powerfulness outages successful existent time. Compiling information from its immense web of location sensors, startup Whisker Labs is launching the diagnostic contiguous successful its Ting app. 

You don’t really request to person 1 of these sensors successful your location to usage the Ting app to way a powerfulness outage. Whisker Labs, which shared the announcement archetypal with The Verge, says it is the lone app to connection contiguous outage alerts astatine specified a hyperlocal level crossed the US.

The instrumentality could assistance capable successful the blanks for folks wondering whether they tin instrumentality to a location with powerfulness aft an outage oregon related disaster. With weather-related blackouts much prevalent present than successful the past, utilities are struggling to crook the lights backmost connected and support customers updated astatine the aforesaid time. 

The work is based connected a web of 1.1 cardinal homes crossed the US that person installed a Whisker Labs sensor, besides called Ting, meant to forestall electrical fires. The sensor detects micro-arcing oregon sparking, possibly the effect of faulty wiring oregon a malfunctioning device. Whisker Labs CEO Bob Marshall cofounded the institution aft his sister-in-law mislaid her location to an electrical fire. The sensor is chiefly meant to springiness residents capable beforehand informing that they instrumentality enactment to halt that arcing from becoming a full-blown fire.

Until now, the Ting app was constricted to radical utilizing the sensor to show a peculiar property. The app had the added bonus of notifying users if the powerfulness went retired astatine the determination wherever they installed the sensor. But aft proceeding however utile the app’s powerfulness outage notifications were to Whisker Labs’ customers and their neighbors, the institution decided to revamp the app to marque that work accessible to anyone careless of whether oregon not they person the sensor installed.

Now, the Ting App, which is disposable connected Apple’s App Store and Google Play, includes an interactive nationalist outage representation for the US. In the app, users tin hunt for and prevention an code to spot if there’s an outage affecting that area, and crucially, whether powerfulness has returned. 

Marshall said determination happens to beryllium a Ting sensor installed wrong a mile of astir 95 percent of homes crossed the US. Each sensor takes 30 cardinal electrical measurements per 2nd — accelerated capable to announcement voltage dropping and sprout disconnected a awesome to pass that the location is astir to suffer powerfulness earlier it really happens. When Whisker Labs loses information from aggregate sensors astatine the aforesaid time, it tin archer there’s a powerfulness outage affecting a broader community.

In the aftermath of wide outages caused by Hurricane Beryl successful Texas past year, “We had customers telling america that they were the accusation root for their friends and families and assemblage to cognize erstwhile their vicinity had powerfulness again,” Marshall says. Beryl was besides erstwhile galore radical reportedly turned to the Whataburger app arsenic a makeshift powerfulness outage map due to the fact that it showed which locations were unfastened again aft the storm. 

In my ain reporting connected disasters, I’ve heard from folks who hunkered down successful their homes during powerfulness outages and became the main root of accusation for neighbors who’d evacuated and needed to cognize erstwhile they could return. After Hurricane Ida near New Orleans residents without powerfulness successful 2021, residents said a section utility’s glitchy maps showed that powerfulness was restored successful their vicinity adjacent erstwhile that wasn’t needfully the lawsuit connected the ground. I’ve besides utilized PowerOutage.us to support way of ample blackouts crossed the US, but that besides relies connected information from utilities and doesn’t zoom successful arsenic intimately arsenic the Ting app does. So I tin spot however adjuvant it mightiness beryllium to person different enactment retired determination to use.

After all, clime alteration is hitting aging powerfulness grids with increasingly utmost weather. The US experienced 60 percent much weather-related outages during the summertime months implicit the past decennary than it did during the 2000s, according to a study published past year. “Major events” including hurricanes and wintertime storms person led to much prolonged blackouts successful the US, data from the US Energy Information Administration likewise shows. Residents experienced an mean of 5.5 hours of energy interruptions successful 2022, compared to astir 3.5 hours successful 2013.