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Hawaiian Electric says it has sufficient generating capacity

Hawaiian Electric officials said Tuesday that its power generation is now stable after rolling blackouts temporarily cut electricity to about 120,000 customers on Oahu Monday night.

“Hawaiian Electric will have sufficient generating capacity to meet customer demand for energy on Oahu tonight and does not anticipate the need to implement rolling outages,” the company said in a news release.

Crews, meanwhile, continue to work to restore power to customers still affected by outages across Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii island due to heavy rains and winds.

The utility urged Oahu customers Monday afternoon to conserve energy after two large generating units at Waiau Power Plant went offline, warning that rolling outages would be a possibility.

The rolling blackouts started shortly before 8 p.m., Hawaiian Electric said, after energy produced by wind farms started to fall off significantly, in addition to reduced output from the H-Power waste-to-energy plant.

Sections of neighborhoods from Waikiki to Waimanalo, Kailua, Hawaii Kai, Waipahu, Pearl City, Kunia, Mililani, and the leeward side went dark as the rolling blackouts occurred at 30-minute intervals.

The blackouts ended shortly after 10 p.m., according to Hawaiian Electric, but were necessary to avoid a more widespread outage or damage to the electric system from too much demand versus too little generation.

Power outages were also reported on:

>> Hawaii island, where about 3,800 customers experienced weather-related outages after falling trees knocked down lines and utility poles. Nearly all customers have since been restored, Hawaiian Electric said. Crews were also repairing downed lines in Milolii.

>> Maui, where power went out to about 5,700 customers on Monday and Tuesday. All service has been restored, the company said. Tuesday

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