Powering Through the Aftermath: Tampa Electric’s Response to Hurricane Milton’s Destruction

Tuesday, October 15: Hard at work on remaining outages

Tampa Electric neared its goal of restoring essentially all customers affected by Hurricane Milton. As of 8 p.m. Tuesday evening, nearly 92% of Tampa Electric customers had power and 88% of customers impacted by the storm had their service restored. For those customers remaining, 6,000 utility workers will continue working around the clock to restore power.

Monday, October 14: Achieving restoration milestones

Nearly 70 percent of our customers affected by outages from Hurricane Milton had their power restored by early morning on Monday, October 14.

• In Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties, we set a milestone of restoring power to 75 percent of customers by the end of Tuesday, October 15. We reached that milestone by Monday morning and will continue working until essentially all customers are back in power by Thursday.
• We continue to make steady progress in Pasco County, and we’re accelerating our efforts there.

Sunday, October 13: Making significant progress

We made significant progress throughout our service area, restoring essentially all customers in Polk County by Sunday, October 13, ahead of our October 14 goal. We continued to make steady progress in Pasco County and have sent more resources to Dade City to accelerate our efforts there.

Saturday, October 12: Blanketing residential neighborhoods

At this phase of the restoration process, we had a growing number of utility workers in neighborhoods. We operate approximately 800 circuits that deliver electricity to homes and businesses, each circuit serving up to a thousand or more customers, and each requiring varying resources to repair. When making these repairs, we prioritize them in a way that restores power to the largest groups of customers in the shortest amount of time. It is important to note that customers in the same neighborhood may be on different circuits, which explains why one neighbor may have power and another does not.

The first 48 hours: Public safety, damage assessments and emergency repairs

• Hurricane Milton did more damage to our transmission lines than we've seen in any recent storm. The lines had to be repaired before power could be delivered to our substations and neighborhoods.
• We also worked with our community partners to restore critical facilities like hospitals, police and fire stations and airports. Without these critical lifelines in place, the community couldn’t receive the lifesaving supplies and facilities needed to recover and survive.
• In addition to restoring more critical facilities, we started restoring businesses to bring vital community and public service providers online. These included assisted living facilities, nursing homes, grocery stores, home improvement and building suppliers, water and wastewater pump stations and others.
• Crews also resolved life-threatening situations to ensure safety, like arcing power lines and trimmed trees and vegetation interfering with power lines and electrical equipment.
• We began restoring homes during this time as our critical community facilities were brought back online.

On October 11, Tampa Electric announced estimated restoration dates for essentially all Tampa Electric customers by county: 

• Customers in Pasco County by 11:59 p.m. Monday, Oct. 14 
• Customers in Polk County by 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 15 
• Customers in Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties by 11:59 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17 

With this announcement, we noted that some complex outages may take longer to resolve. The final days of restoration would be largely focused on labor-intensive outages, including areas with severe damage. 

For all customers who are still without power, we will continue working until everyone is restored. Thank you for your support as we recover together.

Before the storm: Massive preparations and cooperation

It takes an army to respond to a storm like Hurricane Milton. When we heard the catastrophic weather predictions, we sprang to action. We assembled more than 6,000 utility workers from as far away as Canada, Texas and Minnesota and staged them safely outside Milton’s projected path. To host a crew this large, we built eight base camps across our service area, each with support personnel, tons of replacement electrical equipment and several acres of land for trucks and living facilities. To keep these heroes working around the clock, we provide sleeping trucks, laundry service, portable bathrooms, first aid, fuel stations and three meals a day.

Tampa Electric base camp at the Florida State Fairgrounds.

A.  All customers are important and equal to Tampa Electric - our recovery strategy allows us to restore power to the largest number of customers in the shortest amount of time. 

1. First, we bring our power plants and transmission lines into proper working order. This ensures that power can be distributed from our power plants into communities and neighborhoods.
2. Next, we work on essential services like hospitals, police and fire stations for the health and safety of our community and our workers.
3. Then, the focus is on public services such as communication providers, supermarkets and home-building supply centers. This enables the community to access much-needed supplies.
4. As those outages are addressed, neighborhoods and residential lines become the priority, focusing on repairs that will bring the largest groups of customers into power in the shortest amount of time.
5. Larn more about our power restoration process.

Tampa Electric operates approximately 800 circuits that bring power into neighborhoods, each serving about a thousand customers. Residents in the same neighborhood may be on different circuits, which explains why one neighbor may have power and another does not.

A. All customers are important and equal to Tampa Electric. Our recovery strategy is to restore power to the largest number of customers in the shortest amount of time. If you wonder why a neighbor or nearby neighborhood has power but you don’t, it’s likely because your neighbor is powered by a different circuit/feeder line.

Tampa Electric has about 800 circuits that deliver electricity to homes and businesses. Each circuit serves up to a thousand (or more!) customers, and each one requires varying resources to repair depending on the damage. Which circuits get restored first? Easier repairs benefitting the most customers will be addressed sooner than repairs that resolve fewer outages and take a lot more time and people.

This strategy allows us to help the community return to normal as fast as possible. Every single customer matters equally to us, and we haven't forgotten about anyone. We're working 24/7 to get every customer's lights back on.

A. Unfortunately, Hurricane Milton did more damage to the transmission lines on our grid than we've seen in any recent storm. These lines must be repaired before power can be delivered to our substations and then neighborhoods. It is more efficient to send utility crews into neighborhoods to fix regular lines when power is available to deliver to them. We ask for the community’s patience and understanding as we proceed through this complex and painstaking restoration effort as safely, quickly and efficiently as possible. 

See below to learn how electricity is delivered from our power plants to your home, similar to how your heart distributes blood throughout your body. 

1. Power Plants (like a heart): They generate and supply electricity to the grid.
2. Transmission Lines (like arteries): They carry electricity over long distances to substations.
3. Substations: They lower high-voltage electricity for safe use – basically, these are very large transformers. Each substation serves many circuits/feeder lines.
4. Circuits (like major veins): These direct power from substations to multiple transformers like those you see in neighborhoods.
5. Distribution/Lateral lines (like capillaries): These deliver electricity from transformers to individual homes and businesses.

A. Restoration was relatively faster in Polk County than other parts of our service area because we have fewer customers there and fewer repairs were required. Hillsborough County contains most of our customer base and suffered severe damage. After restoration began in Pasco County, our efforts were challenged by delayed inland flooding which limited our access to make essential repairs, and we discovered severe localized damage that appears to have been due to tornado activity. Severe damage and access limitations make it more difficult to restore power and therefore take longer to resolve. We are working 24/7 and are continually evaluating remaining restoration needs to focus resources for safe, efficient and quick restoration to every single customer whose home or business can safely receive power.

A. If your home or business' electrical equipment has been affected by flooding or other storm damage, you may not be able to safely receive electricity. In these cases, we recommend that you work with a licensed electrician to inspect your system and make any necessary repairs before power is restored and/or before turning on your circuit breaker. This is important for your personal safety as well as your home and electronics. In cases where your home or business has experienced structural damage or flooding of any kind, we recommend that you keep your circuit breaker off until a licensed electrician can inspect and repair your system as applicable and can coordinate with local building authorities for any required permitting. Power will be restored when private electrical or property damage is resolved and it’s safe to energize.

Where it appears that electric meters have been damaged, we are inspecting and replacing them as needed. To safely repair or replace an electric meter, we must shut off power. Before power can safely be restored, a licensed electrician should inspect and repair the privately-owned electrical equipment, which includes but is not limited to the meter pedestal and circuit breaker.

Visit TampaElectric.com/DamagedEquipment to learn which equipment relies on Tampa Electric for repairs and when you need to call a licensed electrician.

A. We understand that finding support is crucial during the aftermath of Hurricane Milton. Please visit TampaElectric.com/Updates for agencies that may help with recovery efforts, from emergency aid to long-term rebuilding resources.

• Sometimes during the restoration process, we may need to temporarily de-energize sections of circuits for our crews’ safety while they perform restoration work. This will cause a temporary increase in outages, followed by a decrease when repairs are complete. In most cases, our crews will have these customers restored again quickly.
• If delayed damage occurs to our grid or facilities, new outages can occur—even at addresses we have previously restored. For example, if a tree falls on an overhead line, it can result in new outages.
• Please know that our goal is to get every customer’s power restored as quickly and safely as possible, and we’re working hard to accomplish that.

A. We know that not having an estimated restoration for your specific address is frustrating, especially while many other people’s power has been restored and you’re still waiting. Providing an estimated restoration for essentially all customers, versus individual restoration times, is a very common approach for electric utilities during hurricane response. While our outage map’s individualized estimated restoration time is a great function under normal circumstances and for small storms, it is not intended to provide individualized estimates when the utility is addressing a large volume of outages and complex damage inflicted by hurricanes. We strive to provide the most realistic expectations for our customers – to do that with a severe storm, we provide an estimated restoration time that applies to essentially all customers (and sometimes we can break that down by area, as we did with Helene and Milton). We are working hard to get everyone’s power back on as soon as we can.