With the help of 6,000 utility workers, the company announced estimated restoration dates for essentially all Tampa Electric customers. Many will have power before these dates.
- Monday, 10/14 (by 11:59 p.m.): Customers in Pasco County.
- Tuesday, 10/15 (by 11:59 p.m.): Customers in Polk County.
- Thursday, 10/17 (by 11:59 p.m.): Customers in Hillsborough, Pinellas Counties (55 percent of customers by Sunday, 75 percent by Tuesday).
As of 8:15 p.m. on Friday night, Tampa Electric had restored over 310,000 customers since Hurricane Milton took a direct path across its service area. Tampa Electric’s system experienced nearly 600,000 peak outages from Milton, or about 70% of its customers. 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.
“We wish to assure customers that their power will be restored within a week, if not much sooner, following this historic hurricane,” said Archie Collins, president and chief executive officer of Tampa Electric. “Your support during this challenging time means a lot to us and we thank you for your patience. The continued flooding and remaining storm debris may slow our efforts in some areas, but we make tremendous progress each day. We are confident in the strong team we’ve assembled to execute our storm restoration plan and if you haven’t seen us on your street yet, you soon will.”
The severity of the storm was unprecedented for the region. Hurricane Milton brought 100 mph+ winds and tornados throughout central and southern Florida, dumping so much rain over parts of the Tampa Bay area that it qualified as a 1-in-1,000-year rainfall event. With the ground already saturated from Hurricane Helene, conditions heightened the risk of trees falling by making them more susceptible to wind and contributed to increased flooding.
The company mobilized utility workers from as far away as Canada, Texas and Minnesota to assist in electric restoration, the largest deployment in TECO’s history. Work began on Thursday at 7 a.m. - as soon as conditions allowed.
After a storm, the company uses a priority approach to guide storm response to get the community back to normal as quickly and efficiently as possible. Tampa Electric’s immediate focus Thursday morning was resolving life-threatening situations for the safety of customers and crews, and beginning work to restore electricity to essential services, including hospitals, airports and police stations.
The company is also working to restore other vital community and public service providers’ power, including assisted living facilities, nursing homes, water and others.
Work has begun in neighborhoods as well, focusing on repairs that will get the largest number of customers back in power. As the restoration process continues, customers will see the number of trucks growing in their neighborhoods. Keep in mind that to restore power to the greatest number of people in the shortest amount of time, utilities prioritize repairs based on how many customers are affected. Repairs to transmission lines come first, followed by feeder and primary lines, and finally secondary and service lines. This approach allows them to bring the most people back online quickly.
As we restore circuits that may be overloaded or damaged from the storm, customers may see temporary fluctuations in outage numbers as they are re-energized and adjusted. If customers experienced structural damage or flooding of any kind, power will be restored when private electrical or property damage is resolved and it’s safe to energize their property.
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: Kim Selph 813-344-6694
