Power outage

[leilanidude]

HPP had it easy during Iselle. Nothing at all like lower Puna - Leilani for example. 90+ % of Leilani had to be restrung with new lines.

[terracore]

I never saw Leilani after Iselle but HPP was a mess. A lot of the roads were made barely passable by residents with chainsaws over a period of several days. The national guard had to go down on foot to check on people because there was no other way to reach them. We were barely able to access the subdivision a few blocks from the highway and looking down the road we were on (probably Paradise or Makuu) it was just albezias, utility poles (and lines) on the road as far as the eye could see. I don't know how long their power was out, but up in Orchidland where there was only minor damage HELLCO (they weren't rebranded as HECO then) originally said 4-6 weeks to get power back on, but then the peasants came out with pitchforks and torches so they flew a bunch of crews in and got it done in 5 days.

As a result I installed a DIY solar power system that can run our core needs (freezers, refrigeration, electronics, etc) to supplement or replace the grid. The battery storage is insufficient because of the cost, but I can charge them at night for a few hours with a tiny 800 watt inverter generator and continue using high wattage devices when needed because the batteries make up the difference. I can't even hear the generator inside the house if the windows near it are closed. It's a huge improvement over the gas guzzling roar of the big deafening generator we used during Iselle. Also we hired Royall to install a generator inlet and interlock so no need extension cords everywhere.

[TomK]

HPP is in Lower Puna. Kaloli Drive was passable the morning after Iselle, but roads farther south were in a terrible state. Paradise Drive looked as though a powerful tornado had just gone along the road, uprooting every tree on the way. Other places were hit as hard or even harder, but everyone living in Lower Puna suffered.  I don't see the point of claiming one place was hit harder than the other; we all had to deal with the aftermath.

[Obie]

Day 3 without power on my dead end street off of Makuu.
Neighbor just messaged me and said they finally got through to Helco and they said they weren't aware of an outage and no one reported it from our street.
The power for Spectrum in this part of HPP comes from a pole in front of my house. There is even a meter.
Spectrum customers in this area have been pretty vocal about having no Internet so I know Spectrum reported it.
One dead Albizia branch fell near the end of the road and took out the high voltage wire. The tripped CB is on the corner and is visible from Makuu.

What happened to the smart meters ?
Helco should already know exactly where an outage is and when it started.

[ChunksterK]

Sorry to hear that, Obie, but I can't say I'm surprised. When I started using Helco's phone app, I saw a button for reporting outages and thought, "Great! Now there's a way around their perpetually jammed phone lines." Well, I was wrong. The button asks how you want to report the outage and then gives only one option. You guessed it, it was call the phone number. The app does, however, automatically dial the useless number for you. I guess we're supposed to be grateful for that.

[Obie]

Same result here. Their telephone lines crashed 1st followed by the outage map and then their entire website went down.
I was just able to access my meter and it should say I have no power, nope, it just shows no readings at all since Thursday and says my daily average usage is down 39%.

[Chas]

They do want you to call even if you think someone else already did. I experienced this on the mainland as well. They ALWAYS want you to call to report an outage.

Now, getting through to them may be another matter of course.

[Obie]

I've got a smart meter at my cottage on the mainland.
Because I have Starlink and have it backed up with a UPS, get a message from the power company the instant my power goes out.
If I look at the outage map it shows how many are without power and where. I can then do an easy online report and update them to the exact location of the broken or downed wire.
This is with podunk Co-op in the boondocks of Appalachia.