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Hurricane Dorian's path puts southeastern US utilities in cross-hairs

The projected path of Hurricane Dorian threatened the coastal southeastern U.S. on Sept. 3. After pounding the Bahamas, the storm weakened to a Category 2.

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Despite weakening from a Category 5 level storm over the weekend, Dorian was expected to bring a potentially life-threatening surge and hurricane-force winds as it approached Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, and eventually Virginia. Areas along the Atlantic Coast from Florida through Georgia were expected to get 4 to 8 inches of rain, while the coastal Carolinas may see 5 to 10 inches.

The storm's new path threatens electricity providers along the East Coast.

As of Aug. 30, roughly 10 million electricity customers in Florida seemed to be in for the worst of the storm. Now, an additional 10 million customers in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia may be impacted as well. Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power Co. serves 2.5 million electricity customers in Georgia, where evacuations have been ordered for counties east of Interstate 95. Dominion Energy Inc. subsidiary Virginia Electric and Power Co. serves nearly 2.6 million customers in Virginia and the northeastern corner of North Carolina, in addition to about 715,000 customers served by Dominion Energy South Carolina Inc. Santee Cooper, known legally as the South Carolina Public Service Authority, serves more than 180,000 electric customers in South Carolina.

Duke Energy Corp. subsidiaries Duke Energy Carolinas LLC, Duke Energy Progress LLC and Duke Energy Florida LLC serve roughly 5.9 million customers in areas that may be impacted by the storm. All three utilities are still working to recover costs from two hurricanes that swept through their service territories in the fall of 2018. Hurricane Florence caused 2 million outages and flooded power plants and coal ash basins, racking up an estimated $450 million in operation and maintenance expenses, most of which were incurred by Duke Energy Progress in the Carolinas. Hurricane Michael devastated electricity infrastructure across Duke's service territories, particularly in Florida, with total incremental costs estimated at $60 million of operation and maintenance expenses and $12 million in capital investments.

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Customer outages caused by damage to transmission and distribution systems are not the only challenge facing these companies. Many also own and operate nuclear plants that could be impacted by the hurricane. The 1,928-MW Brunswick facility owned by Duke Energy is in Brunswick County, N.C., on the Atlantic Coast, putting it at risk of facing the brunt of the storm. Nuclear facilities in Dorian's path may need to undergo a litany of safety measures if the storm hits as projected, and plant operators could decide to shut down depending on expected wind speeds. If a plant shuts down, the facility will only be restarted after the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is satisfied that no safety equipment is damaged and emergency response resources have been restored.

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