Utility CEO on Storm Resilience
Tampa Electric CEO Archie Collins joins Public Utilities Fortnightly and Guidehouse to discuss plans to improve reliability and storm preparedness.
As climate change intensifies, storm preparedness and recovery are becoming matters of increasing importance. That is why one utility CEO is investing in a storm protection plan and infrastructure updates that include new technology, power line undergrounding, and better vegetation management.
In a recent publication of Public Utilities Fortnightly (PUF), Guidehouse’s Ted Walker joined PUF in conversation with Tampa Electric CEO Archie Collins to discuss the organization’s storm preparedness goals and how they have been working to achieve them.
“The investments we’ve been making
to modernize the grid — what we refer to
as giving the grid a brain — together with
the storm protection program, our investments to move more overhead assets underground, and increase vegetation management — are yielding meaningful benefits that customers are experiencing."
— Archie Collins, CEO, Tampa ElectricReliability is a big deal to Tampa Electric, which is geographically prone to hurricanes and storms. To keep the lights on for their customers regardless of weather conditions, the utility has prioritized fleet efficiency, moving infrastructure underground, strategic vegetation, and other reliability-focused updates.
This article is part of a series of interviews with Southern states utility leaders that Guidehouse is conducting with PUF.
