TAMPA ELECTRIC—Electric Operations
Tampa Electric Company was incorporated in Florida in 1899 and was reincorporated
in 1949. Tampa Electric Company is a public utility operating within the state
of Florida. Through its Tampa Electric division, it is engaged in the generation,
purchase, transmission, distribution and sale of electric energy. The retail
territory served comprises an area of about 2,000 square miles in West Central
Florida, including Hillsborough County and parts of Polk, Pasco and Pinellas
Counties, and has an estimated population of over one million. The principal
communities served are Tampa, Winter Haven, Plant City and Dade City. In addition,
Tampa Electric engages in wholesale sales to utilities and other resellers of
electricity. It has two electric generating stations in or near Tampa, one electric
generating station in southwestern Polk County, Florida and two electric generating
stations (one of which is on long-term standby) located near Sebring, a city
located in Highlands County in South Central Florida.
PEOPLES GAS SYSTEM—Gas Operations
Peoples Gas System (PGS) operates as the Peoples Gas System division of Tampa
Electric Company. PGS is engaged in the purchase, distribution and sale of natural
gas for residential, commercial, industrial and electric power generation customers
in the State of Florida.
PGS uses three interstate pipelines to receive gas for sale or other delivery
to customers connected to its distribution system. PGS does not engage in the
exploration for or production of natural gas. PGS operates a natural gas distribution
system that serves over 299,000 customers. The system includes approximately
9,500 miles of mains and over 5,500 miles of service lines.
TECO TRANSPORT
TECO Transport owns all of the common stock of four subsidiaries which transport,
store and transfer coal and other dry-bulk commodities. These subsidiaries include
TECO Ocean Shipping, Inc. (Ocean Shipping), TECO Barge Line, Inc. (TECO Barge),
TECO Bulk Terminal, LLC (Bulk Terminal) and TECO Towing Company. TECO Transport
currently owns no operating assets.
TECO Transport’s subsidiaries perform substantial services for Tampa Electric.
In 2003, approximately 62 percent of TECO Transport’s revenues were from third-party
customers and approximately 38 percent were from Tampa Electric. The pricing
for services performed by TECO Transport’s operating companies for Tampa Electric
is based on a market-based fixed-price per ton, generally adjusted quarterly
for changes in certain fuel and price indices. Most of the third-party utilization
of the ocean-going barges is for domestic and international movements of other
dry-bulk commodities and domestic phosphate movements. Both the terminal and
river transport operations handle a variety of dry-bulk commodities for third
party customers.
A substantial portion of TECO Transport’s business is dependent upon Tampa
Electric, phosphate customers, steel industry customers, grain customers, coal
and petroleum coke customers, and participation in the U.S. Government’s cargo
preference programs.
Ocean Shipping transports products in the Gulf of Mexico and worldwide, and
TECO Barge operates on the Mississippi, Ohio and Illinois rivers and their tributaries.
Their primary competitors are other barge and shipping lines and railroads,
as well as a number of other companies offering transportation services on the
waterways used by TECO Transport’s subsidiaries. Ocean Shipping is the largest
US flag coastwise dry bulk operator based on capacity, while TECO Barge is in
the top ten, based on number of barges, of companies in its business. To date,
physical and technological improvements have allowed ship and barge operators
to maintain competitive rate structures with alternate methods of transporting
bulk commodities when the origin and destination of such shipments are contiguous
to navigable waterways.
TECO COAL
TECO Coal owns no operating assets but holds all of the common stock of Gatliff
Coal Company, Rich Mountain Coal Company, Clintwood Elkhorn Mining Company,
Pike-Letcher Land Company, Premier Elkhorn Coal Company, Bear Branch Coal Company,
Perry County Coal Corporation, and TECO Synfuel Operations, LLC. The TECO Coal
subsidiaries own or control mineral rights, and own or operate surface and underground
mines, synthetic fuel production facilities and coal processing and loading
facilities in eastern Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee.
TECO SOLUTIONS
TECO Solutions was formed during the early stages of Florida’s proposed electric
industry restructuring, as a vehicle through which to support TECO Energy’s
strategy of offering customers (primarily in Florida) a comprehensive and competitive
package of energy services and products, including energy-efficient engineering
and construction and gas management services. The subsequent rollback of the
proposed deregulation and TECO Energy’s refocus on the core utility operations
has caused the company to reexamine its participation in these lines of business.
The result was the sale of several of the entities that previously were part
of TECO Solutions. Operating companies under TECO Solutions include TECO BCH
Mechanical, TECO Gas Services Inc., TECO Propane Ventures LLC (TPV) and TECO
Partners, Inc.
TECO COALBED METHANE
TECO Coalbed Methane, Inc. had developed jointly with another entity the natural
gas production from coal seams in Alabama’s Black Warrior Basin. In September
2002, TECO Energy initiated activities to sell the TECO Coalbed Methane gas
assets. That sale was substantially completed in December 2002 to the Municipal
Gas Authority of Georgia.