Tampa Electric is making significant progress throughout its service area, restoring essentially all customers in Polk County by Sunday, October 13. In Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties, the company set a milestone of restoring power to 75 percent of customers by the end of Tuesday, October 15. Tampa Electric reached that milestone by Monday morning and will continue working until essentially all customers are back in power by Thursday.
Nearly 70 percent of Tampa Electric customers affected by peak outages in Milton had their power restored by early morning on Monday, October 14. For remaining customers in Polk County, the company will continue working until all customers are restored. The company continues to make steady progress in Pasco County.
The estimated restoration dates for essentially all Tampa Electric customers in:
- Pasco County, by 11:59 p.m. Monday, October 14
- Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties by 11:59 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17
Many customers will regain power sooner than the estimated date for their county. Please note that areas with more extensive damage may still take longer to restore.
More than 6,000 line-workers, tree trimmers and other personnel are working around the clock in overlapping 16-hour shifts to restore power as quickly and safely as possible to our customers who remain without power.
“Our full team is blanketing our entire service territory, doing what we can to take another big bite out of our outage count today,” said Archie Collins, president and chief executive officer of Tampa Electric. “To the remaining customers who still don’t have power... we ask for your patience. Please know we are coming.”
Tampa Electric’s system experienced nearly 600,000 outages from Hurricane Milton. The outages were mainly caused by uprooted trees and other storm debris that knocked down overhead power lines and poles. Flooding of electrical infrastructure and debris on transmission lines further contributed to the damage. Get updates from Archie Collins, Tampa Electric’s president and CEO, in this short and informative video.
After severe weather, utilities take a priority approach to power restoration so the community can recover quickly. First, power plants and transmission lines are brought into proper working order. Next, essential services like hospitals, police and fire stations. Then, the focus is on public services such as communication providers, supermarkets and home building supply centers. As those outages are addressed, neighborhoods and residential lines become the focus. Tampa Electric operates approximately 800 circuits that deliver electricity to homes and businesses, each serving up to a thousand or more customers, and each requiring varying resources to repair. When making these repairs, they are prioritized 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.
As the company focuses on helping customers recover from Hurricane Milton, Tampa Electric is temporarily suspending disconnections for nonpayment. For customers who may need additional help due to impacts from the storm, click here to apply for Federal Emergency Management Assistance.
Tampa Electric offers customers several ways to report power outages:
- Visit TECOaccount.com/Outage.
- Text OUT to 27079.
- Call 1-877-588-1010.
Tampa Electric would like to remind customers to use caution after a storm:
- Avoid downed power lines and urge others to stay away. Call 911 then call us.
- Stay out of floodwaters, as they can hide energized power lines or put you at risk of drowning.
- Use portable generators safely. Plug your appliances directly into the generator. DO NOT connect your portable generator into your home’s circuits. Connecting your generator to the circuits may cause power to flow to outside lines, posing life-threatening danger to restoration crews. If you are unsure, please consult with a licensed electrician.
- Portable generators must not be taken into homes or any enclosed space (like a garage) where deadly carbon monoxide gas could build up.
For safety tips, restoration status and other resources, visit TampaElectric.com/Storm or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Nextdoor.
Tampa Electric, one of Florida’s largest investor-owned electric utilities, serves more than 840,000 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.
Media Contact: Mary Lou Carn 305-434-2477 and Kim Selph 813-344-6694
