Almost 700,000 still in dark in Southeast, Mid-Atlantic in Helene’s wake

Almost 700,000 electricity customers remained in the dark across Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states Oct. 4, eight days after Hurricane Helene made landfall as a Category 4 storm in the Florida Big Bend area, with most of the outages in the Carolinas and Georgia, weakening energy demand and prices.

South Carolina remained the hardest hit around 3 pm ET, with more than 257,000 customers offline, and Duke Energy had the most customers offline across the Southeast, with more than 166,000 in the dark in each of the Carolinas, according to PowerOutage.us.

Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Duke said Oct. 4 it had restored service to 2.16 million across the Carolinas, but “Some left without power may be unable to receive power due to loss or destruction of their homes or businesses.”

Duke is using helicopters to move power poles into certain areas and flying drones and helicopters to assess damage.

“In the face of the extraordinary damage and destruction caused by Hurricane Helene, our communities have shown exceptional resiliency,” said Jason Hollifield, Duke Energy’s storm director for the Carolinas.

Helene cut power to more than 4.7 million customers across 10 states in the Southeast Mid-Atlantic and Great Lakes region at the height of the emergency.

Energy markets weakened

Most of the energy market effects occurred after the storm marched inland Sept. 27. Across the Carolinas, Florida, the Mid-Atlantic region and the Southeast, peakloads fell to a combined 187.1 GW on Sept. 27 from Sept. 26’s 198.1 GW and Sept. 20’s 234.8 GW – a 20.3% decrease from the same day of the previous week, according to US Energy Information Administration data.

Natural gas power burn in the Southeast totaled barely 7.3 Bcf on Sept. 27, down from Sept. 26’ 8.1 GW and Sept. 20’s 9.7 Bcf, S&P Global Commodity Insights data shows.

Power prices were similarly weaker. For example, Dominion Hub day-ahead on-peak locational marginal prices averaged just $38.54/MWh for Sept. 27 delivery, down from Sept. 26’s $49.29/MWh and Sept. 20’s $47.13/MWh.

Platts-assessed day-ahead on-peak bilaterals at Florida, Into Southern and Vacar price points averaged around $34.40/MWh for Sept. 27 delivery, down from Sept. 26’s almost $41.60/MWh and Sept. 20’s average of more than $50/MWh.

Natural gas prices were more mixed. For example, Transco Zone 4 natural gas averaged just $2.765/MMBtu for Sept. 27 delivery, compared with Sept. 26’s $3.135/MMBtu and Sept. 20’s $2.60/MMBtu.

Another storm possible

Even as more than 50,000 utility workers toil to restore service across the region, the National Hurricane Center forecast a trough of low pressure off the east coast of Mexico as having a 50% chance of developing into a cyclone by Oct. 11, with a forecast path headed northeast toward Florida.

“A tropical or subtropical depression or storm could form during the early to middle part of next week if the low remains separate from a frontal boundary that is forecast to extend across the Gulf of Mexico next week,” the hurricane center said Oct. 4. “Regardless of tropical or subtropical development, locally heavy rains could occur over portions of Mexico during the next few days and over portions of the Florida Peninsula late this weekend into next week.”