We're dedicated to enhancing our reliability and resiliency

Our highest priority is providing safe and reliable electricity to our customers every day. To continue delivering 99.98% service reliability to our growing region, Tampa Electric is making targeted investments to strengthen the grid against extreme weather and other risks.

Those efforts are delivering results. Since 2021, customers have experienced 76% shorter outages, 32% fewer outages and 24% fewer power flickers, while Tampa Electric continues to provide 99.98% service reliability. (Figures are 2021-2025.)

Modernizing and balancing our power generation capacity

We're proud to have powered our community for more than 125 years. During this time we've worked hard to assess and utilize the latest technologies and resources to optimize our efficiency, reduce fuel costs and lower emissions. 

Solar Projects

Tampa Electric is a leader in solar generating capacity. Since 2017, our solar investments have saved customers more than $350 million in fuel costs. Currently, our solar projects produce almost one gigawatt of electricity - enough capacity to power nearly 150,000 homes.

Power Stations

Tampa Electric has made significant investments in the efficiency of our power stations. The completion of our Big Bend Modernization project is a prime example of Tampa Electric’s ongoing efforts to reduce our carbon emissions and balance our fuel mix. Big Bend Unit 1 is now the most efficient generator in our fleet. This project repowered Big Bend Unit 1 with state-of-the-art combined-cycle technology and eliminated coal as that unit’s fuel. This project can now produce enough energy to power more than 250,000 homes and will save customers more than $700 million over its lifetime.

Hardening our system through our Storm Protection Plan

Our long-term Storm Protection Plan strengthens our system against extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and tropical storms, by undergrounding select overhead lines, replacing wood poles with steel or concreate, modernizing our equipment and managing vegetation that causes outages. Through these actions, we’ve improved our reliability and:

• Cut momentary outages by 48%
• Reduced tree-related outages by 33%
• Shortened power restoration times

Upgrading our technology to automatically restore service without sending a crew into the field

We maintain nearly 880,000 digital smart meters at customer homes and businesses throughout our service area. This innovative technology modernizes our grid and improves reliability by automatically alerting us when there is an outage, so we can fix it faster.

Our investments in self-healing technology enhance our communication systems and enable the automatic and remote restoration of some services. This technology automatically isolates outages and routes power around the problem without sending a worker into the field. This dramatically reduces the number of customers affected by the outage – and speeds restoration.

And we installed "recloser" devices on power poles across our service area. These are designed to stop power interruptions before they impact additional customers.

Securing critical company facilities from extreme weather and cyberattacks

To be better prepared for extreme weather and cyberattacks that can disrupt the flow of electricity, we moved our key facilities and critical energy control operations further inland, away from potential stom surge and flooding. We also upgraded our critical energy management systems, which are used to deliver energy to customers.

Improving community safety with advanced lighting capabilities

We maintain more than 243,000 lights across West Central Florida, including Hillsborough County and parts of Polk, Pasco and Pinellas counties. We’re investing in technology that ensures the reliability of our lighting, which helps to keep our roadways safe and to reduce crime. This technology includes smart network controls, which allow faster repairs and reduce maintenance costs by automatically notifying us when a light goes out. Other technologies include smart city applications, installation of energy-efficiency light-emitting diode (LED) technology and solar-powered streetlights that remain operational during extreme weather conditions - delivering lighting our community can count on. We encourage everyone to report dark streetlights so we can restore service quickly.