Tampa Electric Company
09/27/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 09/27/2024 04:49
Recovering from Helene: Tampa Electric's Approach to Power Restoration
At Tampa Electric, we are committed to providing reliable, always-on electric service to our customers.
Watch this short video for detailed information about our power restoration process.
After severe weather events, such as Hurricane Helene, it's essential that our crews wait until it's safe to begin restoration efforts. Teams responding to outages include damage assessors who diagnose the issue and determine the materials and equipment needed, tree trimmers to safely clear away debris, and lineworkers who repair the lines and equipment.
Our power restoration strategy prioritizes the most critical needs to help the community recover swiftly. The process starts by ensuring our power plants and transmission lines are functioning properly. From there, we focus on restoring power to essential services like hospitals, police, and fire stations. Next, we move on to public services, such as communication providers, supermarkets and supply centers. After that, we work to restore power to the largest groups of customers, continuing until every home and business has electricity again.
1. Power Plants & Substations
First, we ensure our power plants and substations are in safe working order.
1. Power Plants & Substations
First, we ensure our power plants and substations are in safe working order.
2. Essential Services
Then, electric service is restored to critical service facilities - hospitals, disaster centers and main police and fire stations. This enables emergency services to help with other storm-related problems or injuries.
2. Essential Services
Then, electric service is restored to critical service facilities - hospitals, disaster centers and main police and fire stations. This enables emergency services to help with other storm-related problems or injuries.
3. Public Services
Next, we focus on communication service providers and facilities providing important public services, such as supermarkets, home improvement/building supply centers, insurance facilities and others.
3. Public Services
Next, we focus on communication service providers and facilities providing important public services, such as supermarkets, home improvement/building supply centers, insurance facilities and others.
4. Widespread Outages
After that, we repair electrical circuits that provide power to the largest groups of customers in the shortest amount of time until power is restored to all our customers.
4. Widespread Outages
After that, we repair electrical circuits that provide power to the largest groups of customers in the shortest amount of time until power is restored to all our customers.
During power restorations, we aim to serve all customers equally. However, you may notice that your neighbors' power returns before yours. This can happen for a few reasons:
- Crews may need to make repairs at multiple points along your service line.
- You and your neighbors may be on different service lines, some of which may not have been repaired yet.
- Damage to your electrical equipment or meter could delay power restoration.
Rest assured, we won't stop working until every customer has their power restored, regardless of the situation. We're committed to getting your lights back on quickly when nature takes its toll.