Hawaiian Electric Co. is urging customers to hang on tight to metallic balloons and other celebration materials, after metallic streamers caused an outage Tuesday morning.
Streamers released from an air cannon onto power lines knocked out electricity for 300 customers in the Keeaumoku area from 1 to 3 a.m.
The electrical utility sent out an announcement after the incident, asking residents to refrain from letting go of metallic balloons or streamers near power lines because the materials can cause a short circuit. HECO said metallic balloons caught in power lines resulted last year in 30 outages, causing 42,161 customers to lose power.
“We can’t control the weather, but outages caused by metallic balloons and streamers are preventable,” said Shannon Tangonan, HECO spokeswoman. “We just ask that people take the extra step to secure these balloons by adding a weight to the end of the string or ribbon. Releasing these balloons, whether intentional or not, can knock out power to hundreds, if not thousands, of customers.”
HECO said outages caused by balloons spike during graduation season in May and June.
ON THE MOVE
Trinity Investments has hired Craig Lovett as vice president of development. Lovett has 29 years’ experience in project management, design, development and construction, including serving as vice president of Design & Development for Prince Resorts Hawaii.
Bikeshare Hawaii has announced that Justine Espiritu is its new grants and programs manager. Espiritu has 10 years of sustainability experience, including serving as a sustainability team leader at TEDxHonolulu, clean-transportation fellow at Kupu-Rise program and bike-sharing coordinator for Hawaii B Cycle.
HomeBridge Financial Services in Hawaii has announced that Sara Hagen is its new transaction support assistant for the company’s Kona office. Hagen was the accounts manager at Planet Ocean Communications for the past 12 years.
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