Hypothesis Testing

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Research Question: Do severe weather outages last longer than equipment failure outages on average?

Null Hypothesis (H₀): The mean outage duration is the same for severe weather and equipment failure outages.

Alternative Hypothesis (H₁): Severe weather outages last longer, on average, than equipment failure outages.

Test Statistic: Difference in mean duration (Weather - Equipment)

Significance Level: α = 0.05

Results:

• Observed difference: 2,067 minutes (Weather outages last ~34.5 hours longer on average)
• P-value: 0.000 (from 10,000 permutations)

Conclusion: With a p-value much less than 0.05, we reject the null hypothesis. There is strong statistical evidence that severe weather outages last significantly longer than equipment failure outages on average. This makes practical sense as weather damage often affects larger areas and requires more complex repairs than localized equipment failures.

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