HONOLULU — More than 48,000 Hawaiian Electric Co. customers living in some of the state’s driest areas will soon face the prospect of advance power shutoffs — and outages that could last several days — in order to reduce the risk of sparking a wildfire when the weather turns especially windy.of its much-anticipated “public safety power shutoff” plan Wednesday, the latest move to try and reduce wildfire risk in Hawaii following last year’s deadly blazes on Maui.
Ever since the Maui fires, the island utility has repeatedly stated that shutting off the power in such a manner could have enormous impacts on the surrounding community. The shutoff program hasn’t been used in Hawaii yet and “good faith effort is pretty much all we can ask for,” she said. The company aims to give the public as much as two days advance notice that it might shut off the power in certain areas. However, it might have to shut off the power more quickly depending on the weather, saidThe company will consider red flag warnings issued by the National Weather Service plus data from its own weather stations and humidity levels near its equipment when deciding whether to cut the power, Ching said Wednesday..
Some 94 circuits on the grid on the four islands are located within the shutoff plan boundaries, according to Ching. The company could isolate the shutoffs to circuits that fall within the areas affected by bad weather, he added.
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