HECO discovers
outage causeThe company says that
a controversial power line
addition would have helped
A March 3 power failure that cut off electricity to 40,000 Hawaiian Electric Co. customers was caused by faulty communication equipment that accidentally shut down a 138-kilovolt distribution line, the utility announced yesterday.
"We traced the problem to several defective modules in the communications equipment and we have taken steps to prevent a recurrence," said Chuck Freedman, HECO vice president of corporate relations. "The fixes we're making would prevent this particular problem from happening again."
The 7:42 a.m. outage affected most of Kapahulu, McCully, Moiliili, Waikiki, Diamond Head, Manoa, St. Louis Heights, Palolo and Kaimuki -- about 14 percent of HECO customers. Power was restored to 39,000 customers in 45 minutes to two hours, while 1,000 customers waited almost four hours, the company said yesterday.
HECO had turned off one of two 138-kilovolt lines serving the affected areas so that an old wooden tower could be replaced with a new steel one. Before that work began, corrupted microwave signals ordered the second 138-kilovolt line to shut off as well.
"Unforeseen events can and do happen on transmission systems and had we had the East Oahu Transmission Project in place, this would not have been a problem," Freedman said.
HECO's proposed $55 million East Oahu project, under review by the state Public Utilities Commission, would add several miles of underground transmission lines to back up lines serving East and Windward Oahu. An earlier attempt by HECO to take the lines across Waahila Ridge for the same purpose was killed by public objections.
Henry Curtis, executive director of Life of the Land environmental group, said the company's findings about the outage still don't convince him a third transmission line is needed to serve customers.
"I think it bolsters the argument that doing better maintenance on their system would make a difference," Curtis said.
The replacement cost of faulty equipment will be borne by manufacturer, Harris Corp., Freedman said. He didn't have the cost of troubleshooting the outage yesterday, but said it would be absorbed in HECO's operating budget.
Of about 500 communication modules in use on Oahu, five were found to be faulty and replaced, Freedman said. Checks of equipment at HECO affiliates Maui Electric and Hawaii Electric Light found no similar problems, he said.
In addition to the East Oahu Transmission Project, ongoing upgrades of HECO's communication system should help to prevent a similar outage in the future, Freedman said.
Ten HECO customers filed claims totaling $6,800 in damages due to the outage, Freedman said. The company told them Monday that the outage was beyond HECO's control and that it would not be paying damages.
The company says that a controversial power line addition would have helped
By Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.com
A March 3 power failure that cut off electricity to 40,000 Hawaiian Electric Co. customers was caused by faulty communication equipment that accidentally shut down a 138-kilovolt distribution line, the utility announced yesterday.
"We traced the problem to several defective modules in the communications equipment and we have taken steps to prevent a recurrence," said Chuck Freedman, HECO vice president of corporate relations. "The fixes we're making would prevent this particular problem from happening again."
The 7:42 a.m. outage affected most of Kapahulu, McCully, Moiliili, Waikiki, Diamond Head, Manoa, St. Louis Heights, Palolo and Kaimuki -- about 14 percent of HECO customers. Power was restored to 39,000 customers in 45 minutes to two hours, while 1,000 customers waited almost four hours, the company said yesterday.
HECO had turned off one of two 138-kilovolt lines serving the affected areas so that an old wooden tower could be replaced with a new steel one. Before that work began, corrupted microwave signals ordered the second 138-kilovolt line to shut off as well.
"Unforeseen events can and do happen on transmission systems and had we had the East Oahu Transmission Project in place, this would not have been a problem," Freedman said.
HECO's proposed $55 million East Oahu project, under review by the state Public Utilities Commission, would add several miles of underground transmission lines to back up lines serving East and Windward Oahu. An earlier attempt by HECO to take the lines across Waahila Ridge for the same purpose was killed by public objections.
Henry Curtis, executive director of Life of the Land environmental group, said the company's findings about the outage still don't convince him a third transmission line is needed to serve customers.
"I think it bolsters the argument that doing better maintenance on their system would make a difference," Curtis said.
The replacement cost of faulty equipment will be borne by manufacturer, Harris Corp., Freedman said. He didn't have the cost of troubleshooting the outage yesterday, but said it would be absorbed in HECO's operating budget.
Of about 500 communication modules in use on Oahu, five were found to be faulty and replaced, Freedman said. Checks of equipment at HECO affiliates Maui Electric and Hawaii Electric Light found no similar problems, he said.
In addition to the East Oahu Transmission Project, ongoing upgrades of HECO's communication system should help to prevent a similar outage in the future, Freedman said.
Ten HECO customers filed claims totaling $6,800 in damages due to the outage, Freedman said. The company told them Monday that the outage was beyond HECO's control and that it would not be paying damages.