TAMPA, Fla. – A scheduled outage at Tampa International Airport will temporarily cut off primary power overnight to one of four terminals – Airside F – beginning Thursday evening to make critical electrical repairs following a power outage across the campus Wednesday night.
According to TECO, a storm-related event damaged underground electrical equipment, causing catastrophic failures to primary power sources and redundant equipment.
In the process of making repairs, the power company discovered an issue with cabling and a switchgear that requires further and immediate attention. This work is crucial to make permanent repairs and restore Airside F to full operational strength.
Related: Power Restored At Tampa International Airport After Brief Outage
To complete this urgent work, TECO has scheduled a power cutoff tonight for Airside F ONLY, with work beginning at 6 p.m. and power returning by approximately 3 a.m.
During this period, Airside F will operate on generator power, offering limited services. As a result, a number of flights have been relocated to other airsides. Operations will continue as normal and passenger impacts will be minimal.
“Tampa Electric has redundancies in place, which are designed to provide an alternative power feed during outage events,” said TECO Account Manager Drew Sirianni. “However, despite our robust measures, we encountered a breakdown in the redundancies, specifically affecting Airside A and Airside F. Redundancy failures are extremely rare and we are currently conducting a thorough investigation to determine the root cause and prevent future issues.”
“While this unprecedented event posed significant challenges, especially to our travelers, the shutoff and repair work are vital to maintaining continuity of operations and our high standards of service,” said John Tiliacos, Tampa International Airport’s Executive Vice President of Operations and Customers Service. “We apologize for the hardships these issues have caused everyone involved. I am confident TECO, our team and our partners will, as always, pull together to resolve this situation once and for all.”
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