Why Utilities Have a Love-Hate Relationship With Hurricanes
Electric and natural gas utilities like Consolidated Edison, Inc. (NYSE: ED) and Duke Energy Corp (NYSE: DUK) have seen their systems hit hard by hurricanes in the last decade. It seems like a lose-lose situation: customers suffer from the blackouts hurricanes cause, and the utilities are left with a mess to clean up. But there's another side to these storms that actually benefits utilities. Here's what you need to understand to see the full picture.
It seems like a long time ago now, but in late 2012 hurricane Sandy pummelled the mid-Atlantic region. According to Con Ed, almost 1.4 million customers lost power. That was nearly four times as many outages as the previous worst storm in the company's history. It was, without question, a bad time for the utility that provides New York City and its surrounding areas with power, natural gas, and steam.
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Source: Fool.com