Power restored on Maui after ‘high-voltage short circuit’ impacts thousands of customers

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Power is now restored on Maui after a widespread outage affected tens of thousands of residents on Tuesday.

The outage occurred 2:45 a.m. impacting an estimated 65,000 customers from all over the island. Hawaiian Electric said only 4,000 customers on the Valley Isle were not impacted.

Hawaiian Electric officials said a high-voltage short circuit occurred at a substation in Maalaea, which triggered power generating units to trip offline.

“Highly unusual,” said Hawaiian Electric Communications Manager Shayna Decker. “And that’s why we really appreciate the public’s understanding and patience. We’re sorry about the inconvenience. Our crews really worked as quickly as possible to restore everyone today.”

As of 2 p.m. Tuesday, officials said power was restored to all Maui residents.

“It started getting hot because the AC of course when turn off, the fan when turn off. So, it started getting hotter, like what’s going on? And it was extremely dark,” said Waikapu resident Johnny Platiro.

Due to the outage, the state Department of Education announced school closures across Maui. They said schools will be back in session on Wednesday.

Tens of thousands of customers on Maui are without power Tuesday morning as the island deals with a widespread outage.

This story will be updated.

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