JEA gives behind-the-scenes look at ‘storm stock’ warehouse in midst of Atlantic hurricane season

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — If disaster strikes, JEA hopes to be more than ready, thanks to the public utility’s new 100,000-square-foot “storm stock” warehouse.

The warehouse is filled with everything needed for disaster recovery like transformers, cables, and other important supplies.

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“All these other materials that you see, the brackets, the insulators, the arresters … when you look at a pole, when you’re out in town, you’ll see all those components on the wires that tie it all together,” explained Rodney Lovgren, Senior Manager of Procurement Support for JEA. “So it’s a mix of all those products here.”

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The warehouse was an initiative started by JEA in February of 2023 to combat growing supply chain shortages of much-needed disaster and storm recovery materials.

“Today we’re up to 586 items in storm stock, which we review every year. A lot of those materials, lead times on some of them were up to a year and a half long,” Lovgren said.

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While everything in the 100,000-square-foot warehouse makes sure JEA is ready if hurricanes or storms strike the First Coast, it also makes sure that they’re able to help their surrounding utilities in need if disaster strikes.

“Having our storm inventory just completely separated from our primary stock gives us some more flexibility, if we have primary stock that we can share it with another utility if they’re in need,” Lovgren said.

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