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Tampa Electric briefs commissioners on storm‑resilience upgrades ahead of hurricane season
Summary
Tampa Electric told the board it strengthened its grid after the 2024 season—converting over 90% of transmission poles to steel/concrete, expanding undergrounding and installing 'self‑healing' tech—to shorten outages and speed restoration.
Chip Whitworth, vice president of electric delivery at Tampa Electric (TECO), described investments and operational plans intended to reduce outage frequency and speed restoration during the 2025 hurricane season.
Whitworth recounted the utility’s 2024 restoration: combined mutual‑aid crews (about 9,500 workers) restored service to most customers within days after consecutive storms that affected up to 70% of service territory in major events. TECO’s Storm Protection Plan focuses on strengthening infrastructure, undergrounding distribution where prudent, tree‑and‑vegetation management and targeted resilience projects (including elevation of coastal substations). Whitworth said more than 90% of transmission poles have been converted to steel or concrete and that self‑healing technologies and elevated substations are being deployed; TECO trimmed more than 3,300 miles of overhead line vegetation in 2024.
Commissioners thanked TECO for the briefing and received the report. Whitworth said restoration priorities after a major event are: (1) repair power plants, transmission and substations; (2) fix distribution where transmission is available, prioritizing hospitals and critical services; and (3) address isolated outages. He emphasized the inherent unpredictability of access challenges from flooding and debris and said TECO will continue to refine estimates as damage assessments evolve.
What’s next: TECO will continue system hardening and provide county‑level estimates when available; the board recorded a unanimous receipt of the report.
