A. Tampa Electric will never call and ask you to make a payment through a payment app. This is an example of a “spoofing” scam. “Spoofing” is when scammer calls a customer from a phone number that falsely appears to be TECO. Scammers often target customers when they are vulnerable, after a hurricane. Tampa Electric will never call to ask for credit or debit card numbers or ask you to purchase a prepaid credit or debit card. If you suspect a call is a scam, HANG UP. To stop a scam, it’s always a good idea to know your account status. Reference your most recent bill or log into your account to check. For more safety tips and to report a scam, visit TampaElectric.com/Scam.

A. If you encounter a downed power line, always assume it is energized, move a safe distance away (at least 30 feet) and immediately call 911, then Tampa Electric at 877-588-1010. Never drive over downed power lines or touch power lines, including anyone or anything touching the line. This includes a fence or other object the line may fall onto. The results can be deadly. Warn others to stay away. For more safety tips, visit our power line safety page. 

A. No, it is extremely dangerous to drive over power lines. Driving over a downed line can cause poles or other equipment to come crashing down. If you are in a car that comes in contact with a downed power line, stay in your vehicle and wait until the utility arrives to safely de-energize the line.

A. The odor of rotten eggs is an indicator that a natural gas line might be damaged. If you smell gas, immediately move to safety, and call 911, then call Peoples Gas at 877-832-6747. Get more information on natural gas safety. 

A. Always avoid driving or walking through flood waters – they may be energized with electrical current and create hazardous conditions.

A. No. If you are forced to evacuate your home due to flooding, you should turn off your power at the circuit breaker panel or fuse box. Always ensure your hands are dry before touching a circuit breaker and you are not standing on a wet or damp surface. During and after flooding, your home and the surrounding area may be highly dangerous due to mud deposits and debris that can still conduct electricity.

A. Some customers may be affected by flooding or other storm damage to their home’s electrical equipment and, therefore, may not be able to receive electricity safely. In those cases, we recommend that the customer work with a licensed electrician to inspect their system and make necessary repairs before power is restored and/or before turning on their circuit breaker. This is important to support your safety as well as your home and electronics. The electrician can inspect and make repairs as needed, and can coordinate with local building authorities for any required permitting. Power can be restored when private electrical or property damage is resolved and can be energized safely. Visit TampaElectric.com/DamagedEquipment to learn which equipment relies on Tampa Electric for repairs and when to call a licensed electrician.

A. If your home or business is flooded, we cannot reconnect power until the electrical system has been inspected by a licensed electrician. Once appropriate repairs have been made by the licensed electrician, he or she will need to obtain verification from your local building inspection authority before power can be restored.

A. If you do not have power, please contact us or check out our outage map.

There are three ways to report an outage: Text OUT to 27079, call us at 877-588-1010, or report it online.

A. Even if your neighborhood is served by underground lines because the electrical lines that feed your neighborhood, including main distribution lines and transmission lines, are above the ground you may still experience a power outage during a storm.

A. After a storm, when winds are consistently under 40 mph, our crews must physically inspect and determine how much replacement equipment is needed and how many labor hours are required to make repairs. Because this is a manual process, it’s extremely difficult to provide detailed estimated restoration times (ETRs) and other information. Be assured you will not be forgotten.

A. Troubleshooters and lineworkers are skilled technicians. Each utility has the appropriate number of these people to handle the normal operations and repairs of the company's service area. When a major weather event impacts an area, the utilities across the country share people in order to restore power to as many customers as quickly and safely as possible.

A. Even underground systems can be impacted by damage to overhead distribution lines that feed them. Our Storm Protection Plan invests millions of dollars annually towards increasing reliability and, in turn, lowering restoration time and costs during future storms. Many of our efforts, like our goal of converting 75-100 miles of targeted overhead lines to underground annually, are focused on protecting lines from contact with things like fallen trees that can cause lengthy outages. In addition to undergrounding targeted overhead lines, we’re strengthening power lines by replacing wood with steel and concrete, making key equipment like substations more resilient, and increasing our tree trimming schedule to protect lines. Since the program began in 2020, we have trimmed nearly 15,000 miles of vegetation near our overhead lines, converted more than 150 miles of overhead neighborhood lines to underground, hardened nearly 3,500 feeder poles and replaced more than 2,000 wooden transmission poles with stronger alternatives like steel and concrete. This work will not eliminate outages but reduce them and help us restore outages faster. Learn more here.

A. This situation indicates that your circuit/feeder, which serves thousands of people in your area - including your home or business - was restored, which closed the outage in our system because of the way it was grouped with other outages in your area. However, your individual location might still be without power due to storm damage on another part your service line, which serves much fewer people or in some cases, the part of your service line coming directly to your home or business.

You also could have an issue on your side of the meter, which would only affect you and may need a licensed electrician to inspect and repair. If you are experiencing a new outage or your existing outage is not accurately reflected on our Outage Map or in a notification you received from us, please report your outage. This will create a new outage incident in our system, which is helpful to our continued restoration work. Customers who are enrolled in outage alerts receive restoration notifications – the notifications include an option to report that your power is still out. You can also report it by calling us or by texting OUT to 27079. 

A. We know that not having an estimated restoration for your specific address is frustrating, especially while many other people’s power has been restored and you’re still waiting. Providing an estimated restoration for essentially all customers versus individual restoration times is a very common approach for electric utilities during hurricane response. While our outage map’s individualized estimated restoration time is a great function under normal circumstances and for small storms, it is not intended to provide individualized estimates when the utility addresses a large volume of outages and complex damage inflicted by hurricanes. We strive to provide the most realistic expectations for our customers – to do that with a severe storm, we provide an estimated restoration time that applies to essentially all customers. We work hard to get everyone’s power back on as soon as possible. 

A. Customers may experience delayed, repeated and/or temporary outages even though the storm has passed. This causes the number of outages on our outage map to fluctuate up and down. This is normal and expected after a storm. It can happen for several reasons, including:  

• Sometimes during the restoration process, we may need to temporarily de-energize sections of circuits for our crews’ safety while they perform the restoration work. This will cause a temporary outage. In most cases, our crews will have the power on again quickly. The outage map can show fluctuations based on this activity. 

• New outages can occur - even at addresses we previously restored - if there is delayed damage to our grid or facilities. For example, a tree falling on an overhead line can result in new outages. 

• Please know that our goal is to get every customer’s power restored as quickly and safely as possible, and we’re working hard to accomplish that.   

A. As we deploy repair crews, our outage map may say, “on our way to investigate” or customers may receive a notification (if signed up for restoration updates) that says “Crews en route.” However, due to the extensive list of outages and the complexity of repairs after a storm, we cannot give a time frame of how long it will be before the crews can get to each repair they are assigned to investigate. Please refer to our estimated restoration time for your area. Remember that depending on the nature and location of the damage creating your outage, you may not see our crews as they complete the repair.

A. We restore electric service to health and safety facilities, including hospitals, fire and police stations, and major water, wastewater, and communication facilities. Then we restore places necessary to provide essential supplies, like grocery and hardware stores. The next priority is restoring the greatest number of residential customers in the shortest amount of time. 

To do this, utilities prioritize repairs based on the number of customers affected and the complexity of the repairs. Transmission line repairs come first, followed by feeder and primary lines and finally secondary and service lines. This approach allows us to quickly bring the most people back online. To learn more about our process, visit Power Restoration.

A. After a storm, we actively work in all neighborhoods across our service area. We prioritize repairs that will restore the largest number of customers’ electricity as quickly as possible. As the restoration process continues, the number of trucks in neighborhoods continues to grow. It’s important to keep in mind that our grid is interconnected. That means the source of a neighborhood’s outage may not be in the affected neighborhood, but somewhere else in the system. In addition, multiple repairs may be needed to restore power for some outages.  

A.  It’s common for neighbors to have power restored at different times because the cause of their outages is different. We have about 800 circuits that deliver electricity to homes and businesses. Each circuit serves up to a thousand (or more!) customers and requires varying resources to repair depending on the damage. Which circuits get restored first? Easier repairs benefitting the most customers will be addressed sooner than repairs that resolve fewer outages and take a lot more time and people. This strategy allows us to help the community return to normal as fast as possible. Every single customer matters equally to us. We work 24/7 to get every customer's lights back on! If you are on the same service line as your neighbor, you could have damage to your electric meter that is interrupting electric service to your home or even damage to your home’s electrical system.

A. You will not be charged if you did not have power.

A. We do not offer a credit or reimbursement for food loss due to a storm-related outage. FEMA is accepting applications for assistance at DisasterAssistance.gov.  

A. Customers are only charged for the power they consume. If you do not have power, your meter is not running. If you are on budget billing, usage changes will be factored into your payment calculation at your next periodic or annual review.