Could Our Power Plants Flood?

The federal Energy Information Administration (EIA) maintains an informative tool called the U.S. Energy Mapping System. The maps show the location of energy infrastructure across the country. Users can activate and disable various layers of the maps to show the locations of power plants, refineries, pipelines, and more.

Recently, the EIA has added data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to create the “Flood Vulnerability Assessment Map”. This map shows where energy infrastructure is at risk of flooding.

Source: EIA

The image above is a screenshot of the map zoomed to an area south of Bridgeport. The map shows a coal power plant () and a natural gas power plant (), as well as three petroleum product terminals (). The light blue shading in these areas indicates a flood hazard zone, specifically a one-percent annual chance flood hazard. This means that the area is subject to flooding during a flood that has a one-percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year (also known as a 100-year flood).