HECO’s rolling blackouts show electrical grid challenges

HONOLULU (KHON2) — Monday’s rolling blackouts on Oahu raised questions about the island’s power reliability, the Public Utilities Commission said the outages highlight the need to upgrade the electrical grid. 

Hawaiian Electric said roughly 100 megawatts out of the 500 megawatts the Waiau Power Plant is capable of generating were lost when two large generators went offline. 

This added to the need to implement rolling blackouts that left portions of the island in the dark. 

The Public Utilities Commission said the outages highlight its challenges, adding in a statement, “As an island with limited reserve generation and aging power plants, the need for replacement capacity continues to intensify.”

The State’s Chief Energy Officer, Mark Glick, said the state needs more reliable energy sources and his department is exploring geothermal resources on Oahu and Maui. 

“More severe storms in the future we’re concerned about strengthening the grid and making sure that we’re in much better shape,” Glick said. “A firm 24-hour renewable resource would be extremely valuable.”

The Public Utilities Commission said the Kapolei Energy System was at 50% when the two generators went offline on Monday. The rolling blackouts began when the batteries were depleted and wind generation dropped off. 

Meanwhile, the City said the H-POWER plant’s energy production dropped roughly from 55 megawatts to 15 megawatts when rainwater entered an electrical cabinet causing one of the two turbine generators to go offline. 

HECO said weather impacts also caused the issues at the Waiau Power Plant, but it has acknowledged the age of the generating units, some of which are over 70 years old. There are plans to replace them, but those plans need approval by the PUC. 

Former PUC Chair Randy Iwase said, “I think for HECO it’s going to be the cost and the PUC will have to review that because those are costs that will be passed on to the ratepayer, and that is also sensitive and controversial.”

HECO said the two generators have been repaired and are back online.