By Staff Reports
(Honolulu) – An unexpected shutdown at 10:30 a.m. of the generating station operated by independent power producer AES caused power to briefly shut off to customers in parts of Oahu. AES is an independent producer that sells power to Hawaiian Electric. It owns and operates the largest generating unit on Oahu and was supplying about 23% of the island’s power at the time the generator shut down. The cause of the generator outage is being investigated.
Brief emergency interruptions of service affecting up to an estimated 75,000 customers in parts of central, windward and west Oahu were necessary as a precautionary measure. The action helps rebalance the supply and demand for power on the grid and prevent a potentially larger and longer outage for customers.
Power was restored to all circuits as of 11:09 a.m., with the exception of a few small pockets of customers who were restored shortly thereafter.
“We began restoring power as quickly as possible while still ensuring safety,” said Darren Pai, Hawaiian Electric spokesperson. “We sincerely apologize to our customers for the disruption.”