HEI - Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc.
03/14/2023 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 03/15/2023 02:33
Hawaiian Electric lifts call for power conservation
Hawaiian Electric lifts call for power conservation
Two brief outages initiated due to loss of generators
Release Date: 3/14/2023
HILO, Mar. 14, 2023 ‐ Hawaiian Electric has lifted its call for Hawaii Island customers to conserve energy tonight. Despite conservation efforts, the company was faced with a generation shortfall and initiated two brief outages between 7:20 p.m. and 8:06 p.m.
About 8,580 customers in Ainaloa, Pahoa, Captain Cook to Honaunau, Halaula along Akoni Pule Highway from Iole Road to Niuli Place, and some areas of Hawaiian Paradise Park were impacted by a brief outage lasting up to 30 minutes.
The 30-minute emergency outages were initiated in various areas around the island to protect the electric system and prevent loss of power to an even greater number of customers. The impacted areas and the timing of the outages were based on the amount of electric demand that needed to be reduced.
Earlier today, Hawaiian Electric urged customers to conserve energy as much as possible, especially between 5 to 9 p.m. Commercial customers were also asked to voluntarily reduce electricity usage.
The call for conservation and generation shortfall were due to the unavailability of two large generators: Hawaiian Electric's Hill Plant Unit #6 and independent power producer Hamakua Energy. In addition, wind resources were near zero. This morning, a problem on the transmission lines caused Hamakua Energy to unexpectedly disconnect from the grid resulting in an outage impacting about 31,000 customers. Hamakua Energy came back online just before 8 p.m. after inspections and repairs were completed.
Hawaiian Electric thanks independent power producer AES Waikoloa Solar, which provided about 30 megawatts to the electric grid in advance of its official commissioning.