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It sure seems like the electricity goes out here more than it ought to. Last place we lived, in coastal N. Calif. had more than its share of outages as well (lots of big cypress trees that would come down in storms), but I've never had the problem anywhere else I've lived. Seems like once a month we're waking up to flashing clocks.
I always turn to my husband and say, "Someone tripped over a cord again."
Do the amount of outages seem excessive to you as well? Anyone have any theories of why we have this many? They never last long, but they sure are annoying, what with resetting clocks and rebooting computers. Def not good for electronics, that's for sure.
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There's been a definite and quite dramatic increase in power outages and "glitches" in the last few years - the observatories on Mauna Kea have been logging them. Before around 2010, we used to experience about two significant power outages per year that affected telescope operations. The rise since then has been exponential. We now get several dozens a year. I have a plot which shows this dramatic increase although it's a few years old now. I'll try and make it available in the next few days.
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I did an on-line survey for a research organization this week which asked about HELCO's reliability, among other issues. As luck would have it, we had just experienced three five second power outages in the space of a few hours. This was on top of the usual interruptions of anywhere from a minute or two to several hours over the preceding few months. Needless to say, I gave them a scathing review for reliability. My guess is that they know they have a problem and are seeing what some of their customers will say about it. Whether they care enough to do anything about it is debatable. Being a monopoly with a dysfunctional state government in charge of regulation is not an incentive to improve.
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I got that survey call today, shortly after an outage. And they ask about reliability, really? They don't know how bad they are?
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We have solar PV and a large Gen set back up - so never need to deal with HELL CO or glitches or even a monthly bill .
Not for everyone but works for our ohana.
Mrs.Mimosa
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Had three outages yesterday. Before that, the last one was several months ago.
Puna: Our roosters crow first
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The part of where in Kona rarely gets power outages. I can't pin point it for sure, but I live above the largest power generating station HELCO has in West Hawaii (at Ke-Ahole).
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In lower Leilani, ever since Helco and PGV redid their configuration in regards to redundancy in thier grid, I rarely lose power for more than a couple seconds. Even those outages have gone way down. I suspect that the vast majority of outages in Puna are caused by vehicle crashes and fallen trees.
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HELCO plans to spend $200M over the coming years on "grid modernization" so they can deal with "two-way power" from "all that rooftop solar".
Wouldn't surprise me if these "glitches" were intentional, so that "customers" will agree the grid needs "modernized".
never need to deal with HELL CO or glitches or even a monthly bill
Don't you have to regularly reset clocks anyway because of the drift? Maybe you found better clocks?
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Welcome to the developing world, we are still working on creating a stable infrastructure. Roads, water, power are all works in progress. Please stand by.
