Tampa Electric’s Big Bend Unit 2 returned to commercial operation today, seven weeks after an industrial accident at the site.
On June 29, an industrial accident at the Apollo Beach plant claimed the lives of five workers and injured another while they were attempting to clear blockages in one of the unit’s slag tanks. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and company officials are investigating to determine exactly what happened – and why.
Tampa Electric workers will not clear any blockages in a slag tank while the unit is online, until the company better understands what happened.
The unit is currently running on natural gas, which does not produce slag.
Tampa Electric expects the investigation to take several months.
Tampa Electric, one of Florida’s largest investor-owned electric utilities, serves about 730,000 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.
