TAMPA, Florida — Everything is back to normal after a power outage Wednesday evening at Tampa International Airport evening prompted a scheduled outage Thursday evening to complete repairs.
TPA temporarily cut primary power at 6 p.m. to one of four terminals, Airside F, airport officials announced. The airport and Tampa Electric (TECO) said power returned fully around 1 a.m. Friday.
The cause behind the power outage Wednesday is credited to a redundant power feed in place during times of outages that did not tap in during the main outage.
"Tampa Electric has redundancies in place, which are designed to provide an alternative power feed during outage events," TECO Account Manager Drew Sirianni said in a statement. "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."
TECO crews that worked to repair the power outage Wednesday discovered a cabling issue and a switchgear that requires further dissecting.
"This work is crucial to make permanent repairs and restore Airside F to full operational strength," TPA said at the time.
While power was cut, the F terminal operated on generator power, offering limited services, TPA said in a news release. With this, several flights were relocated to other terminals and operations will continue as normal.
"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," John Tiliacos, TPA's Executive Vice President of Operations and Customers Service said in a statement. "We apologize for the hardships these issues have caused everyone involved."
TPA experienced a sudden power outage at around 9:05 p.m. Wednesday, June 21, impacting most of the airport including the main terminal, flight terminals, shuttles and the SkyConnect train. TECO crews were able to address the issue and restore power to most areas by 9:45 p.m., except terminals A and F, which then ran on generator power.
Power was restored in the A terminal by 11:30 p.m. and the F terminal's power was finally restored by 2:30 a.m., according to TPA officials.
During the power outage, dozens of flights faced unusual wait times to board and deplane due to the limited use of passenger boarding bridges and inoperable computers.
As TPA continues to work through the power outage, they urge passengers to check with their airlines for up-to-date information on potential flight delays and gate updates.