Molokai Experiences Island-Wide Power Outage

Maui Electric Company offices in Kahului. Photo by Wendy Osher.

(Update: 12 p.m. 10/8/12)

Officials at Maui Electric Company say an island wide power outage on Molokai was caused by a pole top fire at the Pala’au Substation.  A full update is now posted at the following direct LINK.

(Update: 6:32 a.m. 10/8/12)

Power has been fully restored to the island of Molokai as of 6:28 a.m.

The nearly seven hour island-wide outage started at around 11:30 last night.

MECO spokesperson Kau’i Awai Dickson said a pole fire near the island’s power plant is suspected as the cause. The outage affected an estimated 3,000 electric customers.

Crews worked over night to restore power to the main facility before implementing incremental power restoration at around 5:15 this morning.

(Update: 5:15 a.m. 10/8/12)

Crews from Maui Electric Company have been working throughout the night to restore power on Molokai after the entire island lost electric power at around 11:36 last night.

MECO spokesperson Kau’i Awai Dickson said crews suspect a pole fire contained near the power plant may have contributed to the island-wide incident.

As of 5:15 this morning, the power plant was brought back on-line, and incremental power restoration had begun. At last report , power was restored to parts of Kaunakakai and Hoolehua.

Crews remain on scene as they work to bring the remaining customers back on-line as efficiently and safely as possible.