Where Hurricanes Roam: TimeScale Disaster Resilience At The Energy Authority

With access to over 18,000 megawatts of generating capacity, The Energy Authority® (TEA®) in Jacksonville, Florida, manages some serious power. But TEA also has to deal with power of another sort: Florida's all-too-common hurricanes. Incorporated in May 1997, member-owned TEA manages energy trading for municipal utilities across the U.S. The organization's energy trading desk helps members buy and sell power and natural gas, both to maximize returns on their excess generating capacity and to meet customer demands at an affordable rate. Energy trading is a 24-hour-a-day, year-round operation. If TEA's operations were suspended for any reason, the impact on members would be enormous. That's why TEA developed backup operations sites shortly after its creation.

TEA has two backup sites, one just six blocks away and the other 300 miles distant, in Atlanta. "In 2004 alone, TEA's Jacksonville offices had to transfer operations to the Atlanta location twice," says Vice President of Risk Control Mark Kinevan. "We actually moved staff to Atlanta four times as hurricanes approached, but two of the storms changed track enough that we didn't have to shift operations."