Over half a million on US East Coast lose power due to winter storm

Public Service Enterprise

10/01/2024 13:09

Jan 10 (Reuters) - More than half a million homes and
businesses were still without power along the U.S. East Coast
from Florida to Maine on Wednesday morning due to a massive
winter storm, according to data from PowerOutage.us.
    New York was the hardest hit state, with nearly 143,000
customers out, followed by Pennsylvania with about 105,000
outages, North Carolina with about 70,000 outages, and New
Jersey with about 58,000 outages.
    The biggest power companies in those states are units of Con
Edison  ED.N  in New York, FirstEnergy  FE.N  in Pennsylvania,
Duke Energy  DUK.N  in North Carolina, and Public Service
Electric and Gas, a subsidiary of Public Service Enterprise
Group  PEG.N  in New Jersey.
    Extreme weather is a reminder of the February freeze in 2021
that left millions in Texas and other U.S. central states
without power, water and heat for days, and a winter storm in
December 2022 that almost caused the collapse of power and
natural gas systems in parts of the eastern half of the country.
    The storm is coming ahead of what will likely be the
nation's coldest weather since December 2022, according to data
from financial firm LSEG.
    The December 2022 storm, known as Elliott in the energy
industry, caused some energy companies, including the Tennessee
Valley Authority and Duke, to impose rotating outages to
maintain electric reliability after dozens of power plants
failed to operate.
    Gas flows into pipelines were also reduced during storm
Elliott, as output declined due in part to the freezing of gas
wells, pipes and other equipment. At the same time, demand for
gas for heating and power generation soared, dramatically
lowering line pressures.
    

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 (Reporting by Deep Vakil and Brijesh Patel in Bengaluru;
Editing by Sharon Singleton)
 ((DeepKaushik.Vakil@thomsonreuters.com;))