Hawai‘i Island customers urged to continue conserving elctricity to avoid rolling blackouts

Hawaiian Electric continues to urge all customers on Hawai‘i Island to reduce their electricity use to prevent the need for brief rolling outages tonight.

For the past several weeks, Hawaiian Electric has been asking residential and business customers to conserve electricity due to the unavailability of several large generators and cautioned that rolling outages might be needed if generation falls short of demand.

Conservation efforts – primarily by large business and government customers – reduced demand by about 5 megawatts and, combined with increased wind and solar battery storage, prevented the need for rolling outages yesterday.

Hawaiian Electric spokesperson Kristen Okinaka said conserving electricity, especially between 5 to 9 p.m. when electricity use is highest, does make a difference.

“By working together, we’re helping to ensure that enough power can be available for all customers and prevent or minimize the impacts of rolling outages,” Oikinaka said.

Tips and resources are available on the company’s website hawaiianelectric.com/hawaiiislandupdate.

If necessary, brief outages will be initiated to prevent a loss of power to an even greater number of customers. Outages would rotate in various areas around the island and last for about 30 minutes. The areas and timing will be based on the amount of electric demand that needs to be reduced. Individuals who are dependent on electrically powered life support medical equipment are advised to arrange for a backup power supply.

Alerts and updates will be posted on the company’s Facebook (HawaiianElectric) and X (@HIElectricLight) accounts. Hawai‘i County Civil Defense also will send emergency alerts through local radio and its Everbridge emergency notification system.