Imagine life before cellphones. That’s hard, I know. Now imagine living in Hawaii before electricity, before light bulbs, radio, television, refrigerators or ovens.

That would take you back about 125 years, when Hawaiian Electric was founded. King David Kalakaua was on the throne. Honolulu had about 23,000 citizens who got around on foot or horse.

During Kalakaua’s reign, Honolulu had gas lamps, but most ran out of fuel around 3 a.m. and left the city dark until dawn.

Kalakaua was fascinated with technology and arranged to meet Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb, in New York as part of his around-the-world tour in 1881. This was just two years after Edison successfully created the first incandescent lamp in October 1879. They discussed the possibility of using geothermal energy from Kilauea Volcano.

Five years later, local businessman Charles Otto Berger organized a demonstration of electric light at Iolani Palace on the night of July 26, 1886.

He placed one arc lamp in front of the palace. Another was at the Richards Street gate. Two were along King Street, and one fronted Aliiolani Hale across the street. The generator was half a mile away at Honolulu Iron Works.

The Pacific Commercial Advertiser reported that “shortly after 7 o’clock last night, the electricity was turned on and the Palace Square was flooded with a soft but brilliant light which turned darkness into day.”

By 8 o’clock an immense crowd had gathered. The Royal Hawaiian Band played and military regiments marched into the square. Princesses Liliuokalani and Likelike organized a tea party.

A few months later, on the king’s 50th birthday, Nov. 16, 1886, businessman David Bowers Smith installed a steam engine on palace grounds. It connected to 50 incandescent lamps.

Iolani Palace docent Willson Moore told me the interior of the palace was lit by 325 incandescent lights in 1887. This was four years before the White House had electrical lighting.

Fourteen months later, the king, with his own funds, built a hydroelectric power plant in Nuuanu Valley. Twelve-year-old Princess Kaiulani stood on a chair and flipped a switch. New streetlights in Honolulu came to life.

In 1888, Honolulu was a very small city, bounded by Beretania, Punchbowl and River streets, and the harbor. By 1893, there were two circuits totaling 21 miles in length. Six years after that, lighting was added to government buildings, stores and private homes.

In the beginning, Hawaii used 100 percent renewable energy. It depended on rain filling Nuuanu Stream sufficiently to turn a water wheel, and that proved unreliable. Oftentimes, it failed to provide enough power for streets and homes.

In 1890, the Legislature decided the government should not be in the electrical generation and distribution business and allowed the firm of E .O. Hall &Son to take over. In 1893, they incorporated as the Hawaiian Electric Light Co. Over time, the company expanded to provide electricity to more than 95 percent of the state’s population. Only Kauai is served by a separate utility.

In looking into the history, I found several interesting facts and stories.

Many of you have probably seen HECO’s “Electric Kitchen” cooking show. I never understood why a utility would offer cooking lessons until I read that consumers did not know how to use electric ranges and ovens when they first came out in the 1920s.

These cooking demonstrations were the utility’s way of helping consumers learn how to use the new technology.

SINCE THE 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor is approaching, I thought I’d mention that HECO’s Waiau Power Plant was strafed with machine gun fire on Dec. 7. Thirteen workers stayed at their posts to safely shut down the plant.

Afterward, the power plants were painted in camouflage and reinforced with steel and concrete should another attack follow.

HECO also considered building nuclear power plants on Oahu. It bought Kahe Valley on the Leeward side with nuclear specifically in mind.

Historian and former HECO employee Alan Lloyd pointed out that the current power plant there was built higher than 30 feet above sea level to protect it in case a tsunami hit.

HECO President and CEO Alan Oshima said that after the Fukushima tsunami and because of rising ocean levels, “the tsunami inundation zones have been updated. The existing plants may be in the revised zones. We are looking at that as part of our planning.”

City planners in 1964, anticipating a 200,000 increase in Oahu’s population by 1984, considered building Oahu’s Second City in Kahaluu. Part of the plan would have been a nuclear power plant in Heeia.

In the 1960s, nuclear was seen as a clean source of energy and a possible power source of the future. At the time, oil was cheap. The costs of building and maintaining a nuclear power plant were high and HECO decided it was not economical.

Community leaders soon saw possible downsides to nuclear power, such as atomic waste and possible accidents. The 1978 Constitutional Convention forbade its use, unless two-thirds of both legislative bodies approved it.

AROUND the time of statehood in 1959, HECO undertook one of its biggest single projects up to that point: bringing electricity to the new Ala Moana Center.

HECO’S new goal is to return to its initial days when all its energy was renewable. “The renewable policy for electric generation is to reach 100 percent by 2045,” Oshima said.

“We always mention that the goal is also guided by ‘at reasonable cost’ and that everyone, not just the utility, has to have a stake in this.

“Electric power generation uses about 30 percent of imported fossil fuel. The other 70 percent is imported for transportation. Thus, as we move to more renewable electric generation sources, it makes sense to transform to other fuels for transportation. Electric vehicles will provide that and help to reduce Hawaii’s carbon footprint.”

TO CELEBRATE its 125th anniversary this year, HECO is committed to performing 125 Acts of Aloha. Oshima noted the company and its employees have a tradition of providing community service such as beach cleanups and Arbor Day tree giveaways.

“What’s different is connecting these activities as well as new ones to the 125th anniversary. We want to emphasize not only our longstanding commitment to our state but to express our thanks in tangible ways that hopefully touch hundreds of communities and organizations over the next year.”