Hawaiian Electric asking public to reduce electricity use to prevent outages

Hawaiian Electric is urging residential and business customers on Hawai‘i Island to continue to reduce their electricity use to prevent the need for brief rolling outages tonight.

This morning, the company urged residential and business customers – including hotels and large retailers – to reduce their electricity use. Conservation efforts, combined with increased wind and solar generation, prevented the need for rolling outages earlier today.

For the past several weeks, Hawaiian Electric has been asking customers to conserve electricity due to the unavailability of several large generators and cautioned that rolling outages might be needed if generation fell short of demand. Until yesterday, the need for outages was prevented by a combination of wind generation, generator repairs, and customer conservation. Independent power producer AES Waikoloa Solar + Storage’s battery also provides additional electricity in the evenings.

Energy conservation helps ensure that enough power can be available for all customers, especially between 5 to 9 p.m. when electricity use is highest. Tips and resources are available on the company’s website hawaiianelectric.com/hawaiiislandupdate.

If necessary, outages could start as early as 6:30 p.m. and rotate around the island for about 30 minutes per area. The impacted areas and the timing of the outages will be based on wind generation and 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.