HECO asks Oahu customers to conserve electricity
For the second time in a stretch of eight days, Hawaiian Electric Co. asked its customers to cut evening electricity use Tuesday and warned that power failures could occur if demand remains high and another generator loses power.
HECO attributes much of the problem to hot weather and high consumption of electricity for air conditioning, but a downed power provider in Kalaeloa and little wind at two North Shore wind farms also prompted a drop in power generation.
“It’s not one single factor,” said HECO spokes-man Darren Pai. “It’s a combination of all these things.”
HECO said Tuesday night that no outages occurred during the peak electricity usage hours.
One common factor linking Tuesday’s situation and the HECO advisory issued Sept. 8 is the downed power plant in Kalaeloa owned by Kalaeloa Partners, an independent power producer.