Hurricane Irma Threatens Florida's Power Infrastructure, Terminals

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Hurricane Irma hit Florida on Sunday, leaving a path of a path of destruction that could involve years of recovery. Industrial Info is tracking more than 1,200 industrial plants and more than $27 billion in active projects in Florida that could be affected.

"The storm has the potential to affect every power plant in the state," said Britt Burt, Industrial Info's vice president of research for the Global Power Industry. "Currently, Industrial Info has identified 492 generating units at 113 plants along the path just in the state of Florida."

Hurricane Irma cut power for an estimated 8.5 million residents in Florida, according to news media accounts. Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) said on Sunday that more than 350,000 outages had been restored.

On Saturday, FPL said it had shut down one of the two nuclear reactors at its Turkey Point Generating Station. "As Irma's path changed, the decision was made to leave the second reactor online, as hurricane force winds were no longer expected at the site," the company said in a press statement. "We will adjust this plan, if needed, subject to weather conditions. "At this time {Saturday}, it is not expected that the St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant will shut down as a result of Irma, though we will closely monitor the changing weather conditions," FPL continued.

The St. Lucie plant has two reactors with a total capacity of 2,000 megawatts (MW), while the Turkey Point plant has two reactors with a total capacity of 1,600 MW. Both plants sit on Florida's eastern coast. For more information, see Industrial Info's plant profiles for the St. Lucie and Turkey Point facilities.

Click on the image at right for a graph detailing Florida's operational power units, by fuel type and megawatts generated.

Among terminals, Buckeye Partners LP (NYSE:BPL) (Houston, Texas) has ceased operations at one of its largest facilities: Bahamas Hub in Freeport, Grand Bahama Island, which stores 26 million barrels of petroleum products. The company also closed four petroleum terminals in Florida with a total capacity of roughly 2 million barrels, and told reporters that "operations will resume as soon as weather conditions are safe to do so." For more information, see Industrial Info's plant profiles on Buckeye's Bahamas Hub terminal and Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Tampa and Tampa North terminals in Florida.

A Buckeye spokesman told The Street that the company had "initiated full plant shutdown procedures at the company's Puerto Rico operations" last week and suspended all marine terminal operations. "Buckeye's marine terminal facilities on the island of Grand Bahama, The Bahamas and throughout Florida are also implementing hurricane preparedness plans," he said.

Other major companies have petroleum terminals in the areas that stand to be among those most seriously affected by Irma:

• Marathon Petroleum Company LLC's Spangler Petroleum Terminal in Fort Lauderdale; see plant profile
• ExxonMobil Pipeline Company's Port Everglades Refined Products Terminal in Fort Lauderdale; see plant profile
• Targa Resources Partners LP's Port Everglades Propane Terminal in Fort Lauderdale; see plant profile
• Marathon Oil Company's Refined Petroleum Products Terminal A in Jacksonville; see plant profile
• Marathon Oil Company's Refined Petroleum Products Terminal B in Jacksonville; see plant profile
• CITGO Petroleum Corporation's Refined Products Terminal in Jacksonville; see plant profile
• Marathon Petroleum Company's Refined Products Terminal in Jacksonville; see plant profile

Fort Lauderdale's Port Everglades alone sees more than 12.5 million gallons of petroleum products delivered every day, according to the Port Everglades web site. Port Everglades provides a dozen counties within the state with petroleum.

Meanwhile, Dominican Republic's Santo Domingo Refinery, which is the only refinery on Hispaniola, opted to remain open. The 34,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) was not seriously affected by Irma; the dispatch area had to be temporarily shut down on Thursday, but had since reopened. Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica also chose not to shut down its 35,000-BBL/d Kingston Refinery, as Irma failed to reach it. See project reports for the Dominican and Jamaican refineries.

Refineries in Texas continued to reopen in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. Valero Refining Company (NYSE:VLO) (San Antonio, Texas) began unit restart procedures at its 343,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) refinery in Port Arthur, Texas: the 268,000-BBL/d AVU 146 (Crude Still) unit, the 75,000-BBL/d AVU (Crude Still) unit and the 75,000-BBL/d FCCU 1241 unit. Repairs continued on multiple downstream units. See plant profile.

Hurricane Irma has the potential to cause disruptions across the U.S. Southeast and into the Tennessee Valley later this week. Areas in the Caribbean affected last week by Irma are bracing for a potential strike from Hurricane Jose, which is much smaller but still potentially deadly.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn. For more information on our coverage, send inquiries to info@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at http://www.industrialinfo.com/.