For over a century, Tampa Electric (TECO) Energy has been providing reliable electricity to residents and businesses across West Central Florida. While TECO has focused primarily on traditional power generation and delivery in the past, the company is now embarking on a new strategy focused on emerging technologies that have the potential to transform connectivity.
Through its parent company, Emera Inc., TECO is ramping up investments in internet infrastructure to support innovations like LTE, 5G, and applications enabled by increased connectivity speeds like smart grids, autonomous vehicles, and the internet of things. This renewed focus on technology goes hand-in-hand with TECO’s goal of keeping the Tampa Bay area as a vibrant economic center for years to come.
Expanding Connectivity Infrastructure
A crucial pillar of TECO’s technology strategy involves expanding high-speed internet infrastructure throughout West Central Florida. While cities in the Tampa area generally offer broadband access, connection speeds are still lagging compared to some major metro areas. TECO sees an opportunity to help close this gap by partnering with wireless carriers on initiatives that will bring faster LTE and 5G connectivity to more local communities.
One program TECO has already started is providing utility poles and other infrastructure to wireless carriers free of charge in exchange for upgrading equipment and fiber connectivity sooner than planned. This helps carriers expand broadband networks much more affordably. TECO is also exploring building and maintaining its own “middle mile” fiber networks that will directly connect communities to major data centers and carrier points of presence. Having this vital infrastructure in place will encourage more wireless investment locally.
Beyond just fiber and poles, TECO is assessing opportunities to utilize other existing assets to boost connectivity, such as mounting small cells and wireless radios on substations, transmission towers, and other utility infrastructure across its footprint. This distributed network of antenna nodes will help carriers offer gigabit LTE speeds and lay the foundation for true 5G services with ultra-low latency in the future. The goal is for no West Central Florida resident or business to be more than a mile away from a connectivity node.
These infrastructure investments exemplify TECO’s commitment not just to traditional power generation but also enabling emerging technologies that will power economic growth and transformation. By facilitating faster, more widespread connectivity, TECO hopes to attract high-tech businesses and make the region a center for innovation. The utility understands that access to communications is as vital an infrastructure need as power in today’s digital economy.
Leveraging Connectivity for Smart Grids and Beyond
Beyond just connecting people, TECO also sees immense potential for using enhanced connectivity to optimize its own electric grid operations through initiatives like smart metering and distribution automation. With upgrades enabled by its new connectivity focus, TECO’s grid can operate with increased efficiency, reliability, and sustainability.
Projects already underway include installing two-way communicating smart meters across the entire service area by 2023. These advanced meters will allow for near real-time readings to help detect outages faster as well as enabling time-of-use and demand response programs. Using LTE networks, smart meters can transmit usage data wirelessly instead of requiring manual reads, cutting operational costs.
Enhanced sensing and control will also come from deploying automated reclosers, fault detectors, and monitoring devices along distribution lines. Connected to TECO’s network operations center via private LTE, these intelligent grid devices will autonomously reconfigure power flows around faults to minimize outage times. Control systems can even remotely check device status, diagnose issues, and perform firmware upgrades over-the-air without needing a truck roll.
The benefits of TECO’s smart grid investments extend far beyond just improved reliability. With two-way communication, distributed energy resources like rooftop solar and batteries can seamlessly integrate with the grid. Homes and businesses utilizing these emerging technologies as well as electric vehicles will be able to send power back to the grid or charge optimally based on real-time pricing signals. This will balance supply and demand more efficiently.
To fully capitalize on its connectivity investments, TECO is also developing a transactive energy marketplace platform powered by blockchain. Enabled by 5G networks of the future, this platform will facilitate secure, automated transactions between prosumer energy devices, charging stations, virtual power plants, and other distributed energy resources in real-time. This innovative approach aims to optimize the flow of renewable energy throughout TECO’s service territory while lowering costs for customers.
The utility hopes that enabling new clean technologies through its infrastructure focus will spur economic development around emerging sectors like electric mobility, energy storage, and the internet of energy applications. TECO recognizes future grids will look vastly different with bidirectional power and information flows supported by robust digital connectivity. Its technology strategy looks to get ahead of these transformations to power communities sustainably for decades to come.
Partnerships Driving Innovation
Of course, TECO understands it cannot advance its technology vision alone – partnerships will be crucial. Beyond working with wireless carriers directly on connectivity buildouts, TECO is collaborating with startups, universities, and other utilities on pilot projects testing new solutions.
A key partner is the University of South Florida, where TECO funds research into various smart grid and renewable integration technologies. Recent projects include field demonstrations of distribution transformer and electric vehicle load control coordinated via LTE as well as distributed energy resource cybersecurity protocols. TECO engineers also mentor USF students on real-world utility challenges to help foster the next generation of energy innovators.
TECO has also joined Emera’s Grid Innovation Foundry program, which connects the utility with startups developing solutions across areas like clean generation, storage, microgrids, energy efficiency, and customer engagement platforms. So far, pilots underway through the Foundry program involve testing residential storage systems paired with rooftop solar, using drones to inspect transmission assets, and monitoring water treatment plants with IoT sensors. The goal is identifying partnerships that can scale promising technologies across Emera’s service territories from Maine to the Caribbean.
Looking ahead, TECO plans to work more closely with other Florida utilities and the state government on initiatives like developing regional transmission infrastructure to support extensive offshore wind adoption. Such collaborations will be necessary given the vast resources and coordination required for transforming energy networks on a large scale. TECO brings to these partnerships over a century of utility experience as well as Emera’s technical expertise deploying cutting-edge projects internationally.
Paving the Way with Pilot Deployments
As part of operationalizing its technology vision, TECO has launched initial pilot programs across facets like connectivity, clean generation, and customer engagement. While still in early stages, these deployments aim to prove concepts and gain learnings applicable for eventual wider rollouts.
In the Tampa suburb of Temple Terrace, for example, TECO worked with local officials and an LTE provider to install small cell networks along main corridors in 2019. Now with nearly gigabit speeds available, the pilot demonstrates how improved connectivity can attract new businesses, boost property values, and enhance quality of life. If successful, similar initiatives will spread connectivity in other underserved communities.
A 60-home smart community pilot underway at TECO’s Riverview headquarters tests integrated energy management technologies from smart appliances to rooftop solar paired with stationary batteries. Utilizing a private 4.9GHz wireless network and smart meters, the trial aims to optimize local renewable energy usage and flexibility resources through transactive controls and dynamic pricing. Valuable insights will come from how residents interact with and benefit from next-gen energy systems.
Other pilots under consideration involve microgrid demonstrations combining natural gas-powered fuel cells with energy storage for continuous power during outages. TECO would manage these hybrid microgrids coordinating generation and loads over private LTE networks. Another testing deploying a fleet of electric bucket trucks and other service vehicles equipped with vehicle-to-grid functionality that can charge optimally from the grid or provide power back to crews during emergencies.
Wrapping it all together, TECO’s technology integration platform will allow aggregating and coordinating resources distributed among these pilots to help shape renewable adoption and grid services across the broader system. While still in testing mode, the goal is gaining field data to inform scaling programs companywide to transition toward greener, smarter networks.
Powering the Future
Through its new technology strategy, TECO Energy seeks to not only keep delivering reliable power but also support emerging sectors and help communities innovate sustainably. By expanding broadband connectivity and enabling everything from smart homes to electric vehicles to distributed solar, TECO aims to power economic growth across the Tampa Bay area for decades to come.
Early infrastructure builds, pilot programs, and university and startup partnerships demonstrate TECO’s commitment to leading this energy transformation. With utilities internationally also ramping up technology focus through initiatives such as Emera’s Foundry program, the clean energy future is taking shape guided by utilities with vision. By getting ahead of trends and collaborating openly, TECO Energy looks well positioned as the spark supercharging the Tampa region into its next century.