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Talk Of The Bay: TECO record is evidence it's powerfully hot

By Times Staff Writers
Published August 10, 2007

Power-hungry Tampa Electric customers tethered to their air conditioning set a summer peak-demand record Wednesday, the utility said Thursday. At about 4:45 p.m. Wednesday, customer power use surged to 4,265 megawatts, breaking the record set Aug. 2, 2006, of 4,233 megawatts. Tampa Electric serves 1.3-million customers in the area. The new peak nudges closer to Tampa Electric's total capacity of 4,423 megawatts. Retail energy sales for Tampa Electric and other utilities had been slow through June because of mild weather. But it's been getting and staying hotter this past week, said National Weather Service meteorologist Anthony Reynes. On Wednesday afternoon, temperatures topped 92 degrees in Tampa ... with a heat index of 101, Reynes said. The interior had it worse: In Plant City, it felt like 112 degrees.

New insurer will call Florida home

In what may be a blueprint for how to kick-start Florida's beleaguered property insurance market, newly formed Olympus Insurance Co. said Thursday it plans to start writing 100,000 new home- owners policies statewide. The policies will include wind coverage, and cost an average of about $1,800 a year. Besides inland homes, the Orlando-based company says it will insure selected older and coastal homes. "We're a new company," said Olympus president Bill Lowry. "So we don't have to get away from somewhere we don't want to be." Using $50-million from private investors and a state loan, Lowry said Olympus (toll-free 1-800-711-9386, www.oigfl.com) intends to be a "permanent fixture" in the private market.

Syniverse's Tampa office to lose jobs

Tampa-based Syniverse Technologies is laying off 56 employees in technology development and support by the end of 2007. Most of the cuts are in the Tampa office, and the work will be shipped overseas, spokeswoman Diane Rose said. The company disclosed the reductions in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. Syniverse, which provides technology services to wireless telecom companies, isn't downsizing everywhere. It also announced Thursday that it's opening a new office in Brazil.

Correction

Elvis Presley fans were examining a display inside Graceland, not the singer's grave, in a photograph on Page 3D Wednesday. An incorrect caption was paired with the photograph.

[Last modified August 9, 2007, 23:39:48]