Miami-Dade Gas Stations Now Need Generators

Staff -- Consulting-Specifying Engineer, 6/1/2006

Gas station owners across Miami-Dade County, Fla., are now required to equip their stations with backup generation, to help prevent the gas shortages that plagued the region after last year's Hurricane Wilma. The storm knocked out electricity to many stations, shutting down their pumps. The supply at stations with electricity was quickly strained, and traffic congestion, and even fights, at those sites resulted.

A county ordinance passed in March requires all gas stations in the county to prepare and submit an emergency response plan by this July. Plans must indicate a station's capacity to provide service within 24 hours after a storm and require an alternate form of power supply, separate from the utility grid, to power gas pumps.

Multiple communities within the county already have passed their own regulations requiring backup power. State legislators are considering a plan to give gas-station owners a tax break to cover the cost of wiring their facilities to make them generator-ready.