Idalia hits Florida as a Category 3 storm, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands

Hurricane Idalia made landfall in the "big bend" region of Florida on the morning of Aug. 30 as a Category 3 storm, then lost speed as it crossed the state, downgrading to a Category 1 as it pushed into Georgia, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of customers and reducing power and natural gas demand along with power prices.

Significant impacts from storm surge will continue along the Gulf Coast of Florida into the evening, the National Hurricane Center said.

"Damaging hurricane-force winds will occur where the core of Idalia moves across southern Georgia and southern South Carolina," and residents in these areas should be prepared for long-duration power outages, the weather service said.

At least one gas-fired power plant in the storm's path was confirmed to be damaged. At about 9 am, Duke Energy's 198-MW Suwannee combustion turbine peaking units at the Suwannee Plant site experienced damage due to Hurricane Idalia, spokesperson Audrey Stasko said in an email.

"Damage assessments and return to service will be established when complete site assessment is complete," Stasko said, adding that the combustion turbine units are dispatched to provide additional generation for Duke Energy Florida customers in times of peak demand -- whether in the heat of summer or the cold of winter -- so no customers are impacted at this time.

The power plant is in northern Florida, near where the storm made landfall.

Following the landfall of Hurricane Idalia, day-ahead power prices in the US Southeast trended lower Aug. 30. Platts assessed Into Southern, Into GTC and Florida on-peak $2 lower from previous assessments at $27/MWh, $29.25/MWh and $39/MWh, respectively.

Meanwhile, the corresponding off-peak contracts were assessed about $1 lower at $18.07/MWh for Into Southern, $18.50/MWh for Into GTC and $22.50/MWh for Florida.

Customer outages

Over 285,000 customers were without power in Florida as of late afternoon Aug. 30, according to PowerOutage.us, which aggregates utility outage data. Customer outages in Georgia were slightly above 160,000.

Duke Energy had 67,486 outages around that time, and Florida Power & Light had the second most, with 37,375 customer outages.

As of 11:30 am, Duke Energy Florida had more than 64,000 customers without power, "with more power outages and damage likely to occur as the storm continues to exit the state," the company said in a statement.

At least seven other power providers in Florida had over 10,000 customers without power, according to PowerOutage.us.

In Georgia, Georgia Power had the most customer outages with just over 105,000.

More than 25,000 workers from at least 19 states and Washington had been strategically prepositioned to respond to any power outages, the Edison Electric Institute, a trade organization for investor-owned utilities, said in a statement.

"We are committed to working as quickly and safely as possible to get the lights back on for our customers," Todd Fountain, Duke Energy Florida's storm director, said in a statement. "Many of our customers are still feeling Idalia's impact."

"Areas of flash, urban and moderate river flooding, with considerable impacts, are expected from portions of North Florida through central Georgia and South Carolina, through eastern North Carolina into Aug. 31," the National Hurricane Center said.

Elba Island LNG terminal

Kinder Morgan, the operator the Elba Island LNG export terminal along the Georgia coastline, said it was monitoring the storm's progress and had activated its hurricane preparedness plans accordingly.

LNG feedgas deliveries to Elba Island have averaged about 270 MMcf/d in the week to Aug. 30, or less than 70% of the maximum observed deliveries to the facility and a decline of more than 40 MMcf/d from the previous week.

"At this time, our Elba facility is secured, and we do not expect its operations to be significantly impacted by the storm," Kinder Morgan spokesperson Katherine Hill said in an email. "We continue to work closely with local public officials to determine changes to port conditions that might impact Elba's ship traffic."

AccuWeather said its preliminary estimate of the total damage and economic loss from Hurricane Idalia in the southeastern US was $18 billion to $20 billion.