Hurricane season starts June 1, and Tampa Electric is prepared for whatever Mother Nature has in store. The company’s year-round preparations enable Tampa Electric to handle the potential impacts of hurricanes and widespread power outages.
Hurricane season runs through Nov. 30, and experts are anticipating an above-average season this year. Severe storms can damage Tampa Electric’s equipment, and power outages may occur. Tampa Electric continues to invest in strategic projects to help reduce the impact of power outages – and to reduce restoration time. Since 2021, those investments have reduced the number of power outages by more than 23 percent – and shortened their duration by 32 percent.
Tampa Electric invests hundreds of millions of dollars each year to strengthen the system against severe weather, which includes putting power lines underground, strengthening power poles and substations and trimming trees. Tampa Electric’s Storm Protection Program (SPP) helps to strengthen the system to better withstand extreme weather events, such as hurricanes. This program will mean fewer outages for customers, and shorter outages after extreme weather events. Of Tampa Electric’s 12,000 miles of power lines, about half are underground. The SPP program has converted more than 200 miles of power lines to underground since 2021. Tree-related outages have dropped by 60 percent since 2019.
In 2024, Tampa Electric:
- Inspected nearly 37,000 wooden power poles.
- Strengthened or replaced more than 1,000 distribution power poles.
- Replaced more than 450 transmission structures.
- Converted 60 miles of overhead power lines to underground.
- Trimmed tree limbs and branches from more than 3,300 miles of overhead power lines.
The company continues to install technology that enables self-healing. This technology automatically identifies problems impacting power lines and reroutes electricity around them – much like GPS systems reroute traffic around accidents. This minimizes the number of customers affected by an outage and shortens restoration. Where this technology has been installed, customers have seen a reduction in outages and momentary flickers of more than 50 percent.
Tampa Electric learns from every storm, which supports continuous improvements, such as:
- Enhancing outage map technology for improved availability and response.
- Providing mobile safety orientation for out-of-state crews, which speeds their entry into the field.
- Expanding plans to raise and protect low-lying substations from storm surge and floodwaters.
Storm readiness earned Tampa Electric the 2024 Edison Electric Institute’s Emergency Response Award for rapid power restoration efforts after Hurricane Milton. The company also was recently awarded Chartwell’s 2025 Bronze Outage Communications Award for improvements made ahead of the 2024 season to strengthen storm communications.
Tampa Electric wants customers to be prepared
Tampa Electric encourages all customers to have a personal storm plan in place for their home or business. Visit TampaElectric.com/StormCenter for critical electrical safety tips, restoration information and answers to key questions about storms and your power. Visit FloridaDisaster.org or your county’s emergency management website for emergency plans, evacuation and flood zones, emergency shelter locations, government alerts, flood insurance, property protection and more.
Tampa Electric offers customers several ways to report and monitor power outages:
- Visit our outage map at TampaElectric.com/OutageMap to report and track outages.
- Log into your online account at TECOaccount.com to report the outage with one click.
- Text OUT to 27079. Text UPDATE or STATUS for updates on your reported outage.
- Call 1-877-588-1010, Tampa Electric’s dedicated toll-free automated power outage phone system.
- Go to TECOaccount.com/notifications and sign up for free outage notifications by text, email or phone calls.
- Tampa Electric also will use social media channels, such as Facebook facebook.com/TampaElectric, X (formerly Twitter) @tampaelectric and the Nextdoor app, to keep customers informed about outage restoration.
Electrical safety guidelines
Safety is always Tampa Electric’s No. 1 priority. Following a storm, Tampa Electric teams assess and repair any damage to the electric system. Customers can enhance their safety and Tampa Electric’s restoration efforts by observing the following guidelines:
- Stay away from any downed power lines. Downed lines do not have to pop and snap to be energized. Assume all downed power lines are energized. Everyone should avoid contact with a downed line or any object – such as a tree branch, fence, vehicle or even water – that has come in contact with a downed power line.
- Use portable generators safely. Do not connect a portable generator directly to a home circuit. Plug appliances directly into the generator. Connecting a generator to home circuits may cause power to flow to outside lines, called backfeed, which can pose life-threatening danger to restoration crews.
- Also, portable generators must be in a dry, well-ventilated space. Do not use during a storm. Do not use a generator inside a residence or any enclosed space, such as a garage or lanai, where deadly carbon monoxide could accumulate. Only use portable generators outdoors, more than 20 feet away from your home.
Tampa Electric, one of Florida’s largest investor-owned electric utilities, serves about 860,000 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.
