Power out lower HPP? (6th Sep)

[Jeremy Lutes]

"Electricity is overrated"

Try posting on Punaweb without electricity.

[Mimosa]

PV with gen set back up is how our ohana rolls.
Never a bill never a brown black out or surge.
Get used to it - PGV conspiracy perhaps.
Off grid rocks.

[TomK]

It depends on your perspective, Mrs Mimosa. Hawaii is supposed to be part of the most advanced country in the world but it can't provide a reliable electricity service to those that pay for it. Other developed nations provide electricity and outages are almost unheard of. Just as an example, since around 2008 the number of Helco "glitches" and power outages on Mauna Kea have increased exponentially. I've lost count how many have occurred in the last 12 months. Back in the early noughties, it used to be a couple of times a year, now it's about once a week on average.

[Mimosa]

Well TomK - back in the 1970s and early 80s - the resorts kona side had top priority and still do.
East side - Hilo town n MK are lower priority.
Hawaii the Island has always been 50 years behind the times and this will never change.
Oahu - the postage stamp darling of this state has 100 year old pipes for sewage and water island wide.Home of the water main breaks.
Born n raise .
Buy a gen set Tom - so you always have power at home .
Last week a 5 hour black out happened in Hilo .
At night.But food Basket cold storage got too warm and all ( many Tonnes ) had to be given to the pig farmers and landfill.
All the while kona resorts never had power outage.
Same doo doo - different day

[ironyak]

TomK - Hawaii is supposed to be part of the most advanced country in the world but it can't provide a reliable electricity service to those that pay for it.

This sentence has so many strange buried suppositions. "Supposed to be" - is it supposed to be (like in a manifest destiny sort of way) or is it "supposedly" part of the country (like a fake state, or maybe just not abiding by the same standards).

"The most advanced country" by what measure? I can assure you it is not for infrastructure investment (nor electric grid stability in some areas apparently).

"Can't provide a reliable electricity service" or just won't cause whatcha going to do? I'm sure if enough people complain the PUC will approve a rate hike so HELCO will have money to try and fix the issues, or can bring more generation online sooner (PGV 2.0).

Feels like they've got the angles covered, and you'd hope people would consider getting out of such a shell game, but then again HELCO has to get it right this time for sure. As Mimosa points out, they are long overdue.

[terracore]

As I understand it, HELCO provides a "cost plus" service electric monopoly to those who want access to the grid. Permanent solutions produce zero future maintenance costs, therefore smaller dividends to shareholders.

The best scenario for a corporation allowed to function this way is to create a fragile system of band-aid solutions that require constant and recurrent costs so they get the "plus".

PGV is a good example of HELCO's desired future- one where they hire one contractor to produce the electricity, one to fix and replace power lines, another to trim the trees, etc etc to the point where HELCO is just a billing company.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost-plus_pricing