Oahu's power grid could be enhanced to help it avert outages or recover faster from a blackout like the one that enveloped Oahu on Friday, but upgrades would lead to higher electrical bills and still leave the system vulnerable to natural disasters and failures, officials and observers say.

HECO Begins Poweroutage Investigation

 

Coincidentally a government investigation into a similar outgae two years ago has just concluded.

 

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”;No matter how much you invest in trying to make improvements to your system, there are earthquakes, there are hurricanes, there are man-made problems such as terrorism,”; Darren Pai, spokesman for Hawaiian Electric Co., said yesterday. “;There is no way to guarantee you'll never have an islandwide outage.”;

It remained unclear yesterday what caused four of HECO's largest power lines to trip off during a thunderstorm Friday evening, triggering a blackout that lasted until early Sunday for some customers. The power was cut when generators quit and the system shed load to prevent damage to equipment that could take months to fix.

HECO, whose crew spent yesterday checking lines and equipment atop mountains and inspecting substations, expects to have a preliminary report next week. The company is still investigating whether lightning could be the culprit, Pai said.

It was the second time in two years that Oahu was thrown into darkness, bringing into question the reliability of the island's power supplier. On Oct. 15, 2006, a Big Island earthquake and strong aftershock caused generators at HECO's Kahe plant to shut down, leaving most Oahu customers without power for 18 hours.

A report released recently by the state Public Utilities Commission, meanwhile, has found that Hawaiian Electric was not at fault for islandwide blackouts on Oahu and Maui following the 2006 quake.

The report concluded that there will be no penalties imposed on HECO because of the power failures, which it said could not have been avoided.

The 60-page PUC report was completed Dec. 19.

Changing Technology May Shorten Future Blackouts

 

Hawaiian electric and the public utilities commission have wrestled for years over how much we all should pay to prevent and shorten blackouts, but changing technology may improve the situation fairly soon.

 

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”;The record indicates that the islandwide outages on Oahu and Maui were, under the conditions that existed on Oct. 15, 2006, unavoidable,”; the report said. “;While it appears that certain shortcomings and problems arose during the outages and recovery processes ... they were understandable under the circumstances.”;

Meanwhile, HECO is still processing 1,440 claims filed from the 2006 power failure.

“;Now that we have that (PUC) report in hand, we will be taking a final look at the claims filed from the earthquake,”; Pai said.

The report analyzed information provided by HECO and the state's consumer advocate. The two agreed on most issues - that HECO responded reasonably in these uncommon islandwide power failures and should not be penalized.

In the wake of Friday's blackout, the overarching question remains, Could an islandwide outage have been avoided?

“;I think with the present hardware, no,”; said Alan Lloyd, a retired HECO engineer with 30 years in the industry. “;If you want to put in huge redundancies and double everyone's electric bill, yes.”;

HECO could add more lines to share the electrical load in case some connections were to fail or become damaged, allowing the utility to keep power flowing at least to some areas instead of pulling the plug on the entire system before gradually restarting it, Lloyd said. Burying lines underground also would help, he said, but both options would be costly and not fail-proof.

Because earthquakes, hurricanes and thunderstorms rarely hit Hawaii, Lloyd believes it would not be in the public interest to substantially overhaul HECO's grid.

Lloyd said it was important to note that during the earthquake and last week, HECO successfully protected its generators and transformers.

In 1983, he said, Oahu experienced rolling blackouts for a week when Hurricane Iwa toppled poles and destroyed buildings.

Even with the latest technology, communities here and on the mainland would still be vulnerable to power loss, said Anjan Bose, a regents professor at Washington State University's College of Engineering and Architecture.

“;They can't be completely avoided,”; he said. “;There is always a probability of some damage when weather or malfunctions happen.”;