Temporary Outage caused by tripped unit at Maalaea
By Wendy Osher
Several areas of Maui experienced temporary power outages this afternoon when a generating unit at the Maalaea Power Plant tripped offline.
The trip caused an automatic load shed sequence, a safety mechanism designed to protect the system when power generation capacity falls below electricity demand.
The initial outage was reported at 1:11 p.m. Crews from Maui Electric Company (MECO) were able to restore power to affected areas before 2 p.m.
MECO spokesperson Kau’i Awai-Dickson said the cause of the unit tripping offline is under investigation.
MECO officials apologized for the inconvenience and thanked the public for their patience.