St. Petersburg, Florida Power Outage Today

How reliable is Duke Energy Florida service in St. Petersburg?

Duke Energy Florida is an investor-owned utility with 2,016,207 customers. In 2024 its customers averaged 2.21 interruptions and 2,500 minutes (about 42 hours) without power, so the average outage lasted about 18.9 hours.

About 97% of that time came on major event days, the severe-weather days that utilities report separately. On ordinary days the average falls to 84 minutes. A handful of severe-weather days, not everyday faults, set this utility’s year.

The long average outage is the notable figure: when the lights went out for Duke Energy Florida customers, they stayed out for about 18.9 hours on average, which is long enough to spoil refrigerated food and strain medical needs.

For comparison, Florida as a whole averaged 1,322 minutes and the United States 614 minutes. That puts Duke Energy Florida above the state average.

Among the 34 utilities in Florida with at least 5,000 customers that report to the federal government, Duke Energy Florida ranks 28th for the fewest outage minutes (1 is best). Nationally, 4% of the 926 utilities of that size reported more outage minutes in 2024.

These are the figures the utility itself reported to the US Energy Information Administration (Form EIA-861, 2024) and describe the whole service territory, not one street. Your own address can be better or worse.

Storm season and outages in St. Petersburg

NOAA’s Storm Events Database lists 152 storm reports for Pinellas County from 2015 through 2025, most often thunderstorm wind (59), lightning (54), tornado (19), and flood (7). The busiest full year was 2018 with 22 reports and the quietest was 2023 with 4, so the risk changes a lot from one year to the next.

Reports peak in August (40 since 2015), followed by July and May. October is outside those three months, so an outage now is less likely to be weather-related.

NOAA’s own narratives name power outages in 7 storm episodes in Pinellas County since 2015, most often in August. That count is a floor, since the database records outages only when a spotter or agency mentions them.

What the most common storm types in St. Petersburg do to the grid:

• Lightning. Lightning trips breakers, burns out transformers and can damage electronics connected to the grid; a surge protector on valuable equipment is cheap insurance.
• Thunderstorm wind. Straight-line wind pushes trees and limbs into distribution lines. These outages are usually local, a street or a neighborhood at a time, and crews clear them circuit by circuit.
• Hail. Hail rarely cuts power by itself, but it often arrives with the wind and lightning that do, and it breaks solar panels, windshields and exposed utility equipment.

Storm reports that name St. Petersburg

Within Pinellas County, 13 NOAA storm reports since 2015 name St. Petersburg as their location or in their description: lightning (6), thunderstorm wind (4), hail (1), and tornado (1). That is about 9% of the county’s reports, so most of the county’s weather history happened elsewhere. These reports record 1 death and 4 injuries in total.

Who a power outage hits hardest in St. Petersburg

90.5% of occupied homes in St. Petersburg are heated with electricity (US 41.3%). In a winter outage those homes lose heat the moment the power fails, and electric furnaces and heat pumps are too large to run from a portable generator. Warm layers, blankets and a plan for where to stay matter more here than in a gas-heated city.

Residents aged 65 or older are 21.1% of the population in St. Petersburg, above the US share of 17.2% and 13.3% report a disability (US 13.3%). These are the households most likely to depend on powered medical equipment such as oxygen concentrators, CPAP machines and refrigerated medicine. If someone in your home does, ask Duke Energy Florida whether it keeps a priority or medical-needs list, and register before the next storm rather than during it.

About the housing: 50.9% of the housing in St. Petersburg was built before 1970 (US 35.5%), and older neighborhoods often have overhead service lines and mature trees close to the wires, which makes them more exposed to storm outages; 18.3% of homes are in buildings with 20 or more units (US 10.3%), where an outage also stops elevators and water pumps, which matters for upper floors and anyone who cannot use stairs.

Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024 (housing, heating fuel, age and disability tables).

Backup power and electricity use in St. Petersburg

The average Duke Energy Florida home used about 1,024 kWh a month in 2024 (US average 892 kWh), an average draw of 1.4 kW around the clock, and paid about 16.6 cents per kWh (14.1 in the state, 15.8 nationally), roughly $170 a month.

Keeping only the essentials on (a refrigerator, router, a few lights and phone chargers, about 400 watts) through an outage that lasts the average about 18.9 hours takes about 7.6 kWh. That is more than a portable battery holds, so a home battery system or a generator with a fuel supply for a day or two is the realistic option.

A generator must never run indoors, in a garage or near a window; generator and food-safety rules are in the power outage guide linked below.

If the power is out in St. Petersburg

About 258,308 people live in St. Petersburg, the 5th largest of the 20 Florida cities on this site. Report the outage to the utility so a ticket exists for your address, then check Duke Energy Florida’s outage map for an estimate. If neighbors have power and you do not, report it again: the fault may be on the line to your house alone, which is a separate repair.

St. Petersburg power outage map

Duke Energy Florida’s outage map has the official restoration estimate for your address; the count above comes from residents. Food and generator safety: power outage guide.

St. Petersburg power outage questions