EPIC failure by Tampa Bay area utility companies (Orlando, Seffner: home, wedding)

[sinatras]

Originally Posted by bobandsherry

Also factually wrong. TECO reported as of yesterday (9/13) "Tampa Electric has restored power to 250,000 customers and has repaired its entire transmission system, which is the high-voltage network of lines that delivers electricity from the power plants." For two days that well over a hundred thousand restored per day.

They are lying. My outage is not even appearing on their map. Neither are the outages of my neighbors.

[bobandsherry]

Originally Posted by sinatras

I saw the 700 number on Bay News 9. This article says they had 1,000.

Actually the article says "It has more than 1,000 workers ready to assist from other nearby states." As I mentioned above, the day after the hurricane TECO reported 3,500 mobilized, so it seems they had 2,500 from within their own internal structure.

With TECO about 1/10th the size of FPL, on a proportional basis TECO had 35,000 workers mobilized compared to 17,000 for FPL.

Understand how frustrating it is without power and no answers, I'd be totally po'd too. To me this is more a matter of why the outages occurred with such a relatively minor storm. All the companies need to find a way to prevent this in the future as this experience should not be acceptable.

[sinatras]

Originally Posted by bobandsherry

Actually the article says "It has more than 1,000 workers ready to assist from other nearby states." As I mentioned above, the day after the hurricane TECO reported 3,500 mobilized, so it seems they had 2,500 from within their own internal structure.

With TECO about 1/10th the size of FPL, on a proportional basis TECO had 35,000 workers mobilized compared to 17,000 for FPL.

Understand how frustrating it is without power and no answers, I'd be totally po'd too. To me this is more a matter of why the outages occurred with such a relatively minor storm. All the companies need to find a way to prevent this in the future as this experience should not be acceptable.

As I said, if it takes more than a week to restore power after 66 mph winds, something we get in a typical PM thunderstorm, TECO did not do enough to prepare for this event. Which includes not enough workers contracted.

[dothetwist]

Neighbors told me our power in downtown Gulfport came back late last night (I am away now). I have relatives in Sarasota who are still without power.

Lots of tree limbs down in Gulfport, some big trees too, a few homes hurt badly. But mostly not a lot of home damage. Varied street to street, block to block. But when a power line gets pulled down it affects many many blocks in many directions.

[mcharas]

Originally Posted by BucFan

Same here. Wonder if having underground utility lines has anything to do with it? Will have to use this as a selling point if I ever sell.

Same with us... Power the whole time. I'm sure it has a lot to do with whether lines directly affecting your house and neighborhood are largely underground. We are in a fairly new section of New Tampa where above ground power lines are on the main streets but not to be found running to individual houses.

[Badbird2000]

Cost is one (big) factor to running power underground:


According to the May 2011 paper "Underground Electric Transmission Lines" published by the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, "The estimated cost for constructing underground transmission lines ranges from 4 to 14 times more expensive than overhead lines of the same voltage and same distance. A typical new 69 kV overhead single-circuit transmission line costs approximately $285,000 per mile as opposed to $1.5 million per mile for a new 69 kV underground line (without the terminals). A new 138 kV overhead line costs approximately $390,000 per mile as opposed to $2 million per mile for underground (without the terminals)."


Also, factor in cost for repairs when there is a problem: Trenching, cutting, splicing, permits, etc.


My mom finally got power back on last night around 8:30. She lives in the Seffner area.

[sinatras]

I just want everyone here to know that even if I had never lost power, and had power through the storm all the way until today, I would STILL be irate about TECO's incompetence and being unprepared for this storm. The amount of outages due to poor infrastructure and the amount of time it is taking for them to restore service are both unacceptable.
TECO needs to be investigated. I'm pretty sure that they will be getting all manner of lawsuits, complaints, inquiries after this fiasco.

[KPB]

Originally Posted by sinatras

I just want everyone here to know that even if I had never lost power, and had power through the storm all the way until today, I would STILL be irate about TECO's incompetence and being unprepared for this storm. The amount of time it is taking for them to restore service to a measly 400,000+ people is unacceptable. I say measly b/c it pales in comparison to FPL's number and other utilities'.

TECO needs to be investigated. I'm pretty sure that they will be getting all manner of lawsuits, complaints, inquiries after this fiasco.

Could always be worse, you might just wanna go buy a generator and a window unit and make yourself comfortable.

[BucFan]

Originally Posted by KPB

Could always be worse, you might just wanna go buy a generator and a window unit and make yourself comfortable.

I would just move into an air conditioned hotel. Appears this sort of deal (hurricane knocking out power) happens around here in a blue moon. Maybe stash away money into a hurricane emergency fund just for this very purpose in case you need it down the road. The renting office space as was posted earlier is another good idea and probably less expensive.

[bobandsherry]

Originally Posted by sinatras

As I said, if it takes more than a week to restore power after 66 mph winds, something we get in a typical PM thunderstorm, TECO did not do enough to prepare for this event. Which includes not enough workers contracted.

Do you really know that they could have done more? You have information that shows there is an abundance of lineman that are still available? Just guessing that Harvey recovery tapped deeply into the pool of qualified lineman. And those here are already working 16 hour shifts.

If your only purpose is to vent, vent away. But keep in mind you are posting in a forum that will get no attention from those who can make a change. Your efforts may be better spent in writing a well thought out letter to TECO execs and your government officials who can influence change.