KIUC: Cable failure caused islandwide outage on Kauai

KAUAI, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - The Kauai Island Utility Cooperative said a cable failure at the largest unit in KIUC’s generation fleet caused Sunday’s islandwide power outage.

For about two and a half hours, some 33,000 customers were without power. The cable failure caused a cascading effect on other parts of the system.

“We’ve made good progress today in returning one of our Port Allen diesel generators back into service, and the Green Energy Team biomass plant is now capable of operating up to full capacity,” said KIUC’s President and Chief Executive Officer, David Bissell. Another Port Allen Generator, the island’s third largest unit, is expected to be repaired Tuesday once parts arrive from the mainland, KIUC added.

Officials said other units were also already offline for maintenance.

Kauai residents are still being urged to conserve electricity, however.

“Unfortunately today the weather is overcast. There appears to be a storm approaching, so our solar facilities are not producing power,” KIUC Communications Manager Beth Tokioka said. “Turn off the lights, unplug appliances that you’re not using, really try to scale back your energy use as much as you can.”

There may still be rolling blackouts that could last for 30 minutes at a time.

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