Hawaiian Electric Ramps Up Resilience Work as Hurricane Season Begins

Hawaiian Electric announced the resumption of critical resilience projects such as replacing utility poles – work normally done before hurricane season but delayed due to COVID-19 and stay-at-home orders.

Hurricane season officially starts today, and Hawaiian Electric is ramping up infrastructure upgrades to ensure public safety and system reliability across Oʻahu, Maui County and Hawaiʻi Island.

With customers adhering to pandemic-related stay-at-home orders, Hawaiian Electric delayed certain resilience and maintenance projects to minimize the number of customer outages that are often needed to perform the work.

As the state continues to loosen stay-at-home orders, crews will resume critical work that includes removing temporary overhead jumper lines and replacing aging and damaged utility poles. Hundreds of poles and transformers will be replaced through the end of 2020 with higher-priority jobs scheduled first.

Customers will be notified if the scheduled work requires outages. Notices are mailed or delivered to affected customers several days before the scheduled work takes place to allow time to make alternative plans. With many customers still working from home or taking online classes, these notices will provide information such as the expected duration of the outage.