Who Gets Power Back First? Tampa Electric Explains

BRANDON, FL – Over and over again, first responders and area utilities warned Florida residents who were in the path of Hurricane Irma they would not be able to assist residents until the threat from the storm has passed.

High winds, torrential rains, flooding and storm surge from Hurricane Irma made much of Florida a maze of downed power lines and toppled trees over its many streets and highways. Since the storm passed through on Sunday, linemen from across North America are assisting utilities to help get power back on to residents and businesses.

But how do utilities determine who gets their power back on first?

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Watch: Hurricane Irma's Destructive Journey By The Numbers

According to Tampa Electric, which provides electricity to Hillsborough County and parts of Pasco, Pinellas and Polk counties, their goal is to restore power to the largest numbers of customers in the shortest possible time during a widespread outage.

But during severe weather, Tampa Electric said it takes a priority restoration approach, once conditions are safe and winds are below 40 miles per hour:

• First, crews work to restore electric service to critical service facilities: Hospitals, disaster centers and main police and fire stations. Restoring power to these facilities first helps with other storm-related issues or medical emergencies.
• Next, power is restored to water and sewer installations.
• TECO then focuses on communication service providers and facilities that provide important public services, such as supermarkets, building supply/home improvement centers, insurance facilities, etc.
• Finally, the utility repairs electrical circuits that provide power to the largest group of customers, followed by the remainder of circuits until power is back on for all customers.

Even when TECO follows these guidelines, residents still may see electricity coming back on in a seemingly random pattern, even in the same neighborhood or right next door. Tampa Electric said this may happen for several reasons:

• Crews might need to make repairs at multiple spots along a single electric service lines
• Different customers may have different service lines, even with in the same neighborhood
• Customers may have damage to their meter, even when service lines are repaired

On Tuesday, TECO reported that 425,000 of its 730,000 customers were impacted by Hurricane Irma. At the storm’s peak, 335,000 remained without power, and power has been restored to 170,000 customers.

TECO is estimating that nearly all customers will be back in service by the end of the weekend. Because of the magnitude of the storm and significant system rebuilding, TECO said some customers may take longer to restore. They are estimating it will take more than 280,000 man-hours of work to restore power to all of its customers.

Captions: Hurricane Irma knocked out many power lines across the Tampa Bay region and the state of Florida, like these near Talon Crest Drive in Lakeland.

Image via Polk County Emergency Management Facebook page