Five days and five nights after Hurricane Ian’s winds blew through the Tampa Bay area, Tampa Electric has restored power to essentially all customers who are able to receive it.
Some customers who are affected by other factors, such as flooding or damage to their home’s electrical equipment, may not be able to safely receive electricity. For a handful of customers with more complex damage, it will take additional time to restore. Tampa Electric will work with these customers until their issues are resolved.
“I would like to thank our customers for their patience, support and understanding during this restoration. I’m very proud that we completed this work safely, with no serious injuries,” said Archie Collins, president and chief executive officer of Tampa Electric. “We could not have completed this restoration as efficiently without the strong mutual-assistance support from our fellow utilities, including some who drove for two days to get here just to help us.”
About 3,000 line workers, tree trimmers and other personnel – from as far away as Oklahoma, Texas and Indiana – worked around the clock in 16-hour shifts to restore power quickly and safely to 295,000 customers.
For customers who may need additional help due to impacts from the storm, click click here to learn how to apply for Federal Emergency Management Assistance after Hurricane Ian.
Hurricane Ian damaged about half of Tampa Electric’s streetlights, and crews are working hard to inspect and replace damaged lights. As a result of this storm restoration work, all new lighting services and construction projects with outdoor lighting are on hold until Oct. 10. If you see a malfunctioning or damaged streetlight, there’s no need to report it; TECO crews are inspecting all lights.
Tampa Electric offers customers several ways to report power outages:
- The fastest, easiest way to report an outage is to visit tecoaccount.com/outage.
- Also, enroll in Power Updates from tecoaccount.com to text outage reports or get service updates via text, phone or email.
- Update the phone number and email associated with your account at tecoaccount.com/yourprofile. This helps when you report an outage.
- Residential and commercial customers may call Tampa Electric’s dedicated toll-free automated power outage phone system at 1-877-588-1010 to report a power outage or electric emergency.
Tampa Electric, one of Florida’s largest investor-owned electric utilities, serves more than 810,000 customers in West Central Florida. Tampa Electric is a subsidiary of Emera Inc., a geographically diverse energy and services company headquartered in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
