Blackouts here limited to single island
By Vicki Viotti and Tim Hurley
Advertiser Staff Writers
Power has failed dramatically in Hawai'i, and still can, although not on the grand scale that left millions in the dark last night across the eastern United States and Canada.
Each island has a power-generating system that acts independently, and the utilities plan for power in reserve as well as backup transmission lines for their island.
O'ahu's past major blackouts — in 1983, 1988 and 1991 — happened because of transmission problems, said Chuck Freedman, spokesman for Hawaiian Electric Co. When part of the power grid failed, there was not enough capacity on the remaining system to deliver the electricity, causing blackouts across the island.
Freedman said so far HECO has been able to avert a recurrence of its own near-total blackouts by improving the transmission "corridors," described as power lines through which electricity can be re-routed in the event of a local failure.
These include the "southern corridor," visible as large utility poles connecting plants between Campbell Industrial Park and Waiau, he said. In East O'ahu, a system of underground lines to improve transmission in that region is
being pursued instead of the company's controversial Wa'ahila Ridge power-line project. In addition, he said, the company has been improving generator systems to have the capacity to produce about a third more power than normal to compensate for a lost generating unit.
Of the Neighbor Islands, Kaua'i is the most vulnerable to islandwide blackouts. The Garden Island, in fact, experienced a nearly islandwide power failure for a short time on June 13, and two-thirds of the island briefly lost power in April.
Alton Miyamoto, president of the Kaua'i Island Utility Co-op, said because of costs associated with rebuilding the system in the wake of two hurricanes, plus the high cost of fuel, the utility has chosen an economical power-generation strategy that leaves it vulnerable to blackouts — but usually just short ones of 15 and 20 minutes.
On the Big Island, providing power to a growing population continues to be a challenge for the Hawaii Electric Light Co., although there have been no recent islandwide power outages, said Chuck Freedman, spokesman for Hawaiian Electric, HELCO's parent company.
Although Puna Geothermal Energy is back to full generating capacity, last year its ability to produce power fell from a maximum of 30 megawatts to just 5 megawatts. And Hamakua Energy Partners, the island's largest power producer, experienced recent problems with its generators, Freedman said.
Meanwhile, demand for power continues to increase on the Big Island, especially on the growing West Side. The utility tried to add a power plant at Keahole, but a judge stopped construction before it was completed because of concerns over county permits.
Freedman said power-generating systems on Maui, Moloka'i and Lana'i — operated by Maui Electric Co., another Hawaiian Electric subsidiary — have been stable and reliable in recent years.
While not having the ability to draw backup power from a neighboring utility is normally a handicap that drives up the cost of producing electricity, in this instance that reliance worked against the system on the East Coast by triggering a regional power failure, officials said.
Government officials statewide were breathing a sigh of relief that the state was largely unaffected yesterday by the blackout's effect on Hawai'i airline movements.
State Department of Transportation spokesman Scott Ishikawa said all the Hawai'i-bound flights had departed from the East Coast before the failure. Eastbound flights from Honolulu were unaffected on at least their first leg because they stop first in one of the major airline hubs on the West Coast or in Denver or Chicago.
In the event of a power failure locally, Ishikawa said, airports and harbors have generators powering security checkpoints and traffic control centers, so that flights would be able to land and take off.
Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.
