Tampa Electric Has Power Restored To 60% Of Customers Knocked Offline

TAMPA, FL — Nearly 60 percent of the Tampa Electric customers who lost power during Hurricane Irma now have their power restored, according to a news release from the utility. Tampa Electric expects to restore power to essentially all customers by Sunday night. Workers have power back for 250,000 customers and have repaired the entire transmission system, which is the high-voltage network of lines that delivers electricity from the power plants.

In total, 425,000 of TECO's 750,000 customers were affected by the storm, and power has been restored to about 59 percent of those users, the utility says. More than 4,000 line, tree and other personnel are working around the clock in 16-hour shifts to restore power to the 175,000 customers who remain without power. Some customers with more complex damage may take longer to restore.

"We know that our customers want their lives to get back to normal - and electricity is a key part of that," said Gordon Gillette, president and chief executive officer of Tampa Electric, in the news release. "Thank you for your continued patience, and rest assured, we will get your power restored."

Watch: Hurricane Irma's Destructive Journey By The Numbers

Customer Service has 24-hour coverage and extra staff on hand to take emergency and outage-related calls. The company also has assistance from other utilities to take weather-related calls, if needed. Customers with non-storm-related calls should consider calling later in the week.

TECO

• To report an outage by phone, call 1-877-588-1010
• To report an outage online, visit TECO’s website.
• To send an outage report via text, text OUT to 35069
• To check on the status of an outage via TECO’s outage map, visit the company’s website.

To be safe after a storm:

• Keep away from downed power lines and urge others to be extremely cautious.
• Use portable generators safely. Plug your appliances directly into the generator. Do not connect your portable generator into your home's circuits. Connecting your generator to the circuits may cause power to flow to outside lines, posing life-threatening danger to restoration crews. Portable generators must not be taken into homes or any enclosed space (like a garage) where deadly carbon monoxide gases could build up.
• Stay out of floodwaters, as they can hide energized power lines or put you at risk of drowning.

Image via Shutterstock