MECO Maalaea Generating Unit Trips Offline

MECO Maalaea Power Plant. Photo by Wendy Osher.

By Wendy Osher

Brief outages were reported on Thursday afternoon, January 26, 2012 after a large diesel generating unit at the Maui Electric Company Maalaea Power Plant tripped offline.

The incident was reported at 1:49 p.m. and all customers were back online by 2:20 p.m., according to MECO Spokesperson Kau’i Awai-Dickson.

As a protective measure, to restore the balance of power supply and demand and prevent a possibly longer and more widespread outage, power was turned off briefly to customers in parts of Lahaina, Waiehu and Upcountry, Maui.

Crews were able to quickly bring additional generators on-line to restore the balance, said Awai-Dickson.

An investigation is currently underway to determine what caused the generator to trip offline.

“MECO would like to thank the public for its patience and sincerely apologizes to those affected for the disruption,” said Awai-Dickson in a statement.