Hurricane Milton churned through the middle of Florida on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, leaving a trail of devastation from the Gulf to the Atlantic. In addition to damaged property and lost lives, the hurricane has wreaked havoc on the power sector in Florida. More than 3 million utility customers were without power on Thursday afternoon according to poweroutage.us, representing just over a quarter of all the households and businesses in the state that are currently being tracked. Any impact to the Florida power grid directly impacts the natural gas market, as few states are more dependent on natural gas for electric generation than Florida. The EIA numbers from June indicate that 75% of Florida’s power came from natural gas plants, with nuclear being the next-largest component of the energy mix at 10% (see the blue bars in the chart below). Both of the state’s nuclear facilities are in South Florida and were unaffected by the storm.
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