Power Outages in Hawaii--Unknown Generation Problem Blamed

The power has gone out twice in the last three hours affecting a number of areas on Maui (Hawaii) including Kihei, Lahaina, and Napili. The electric company (MECO) says that an unknown problem is causing one of their generators to trip at their power plant. A team of people are currently working to correct the problem. The problem is not weather related. It's a beautiful evening. I was at a movie theater during both outages. The first one occurred at about 3pm local time and lasted about thirty minutes and the second one occurred at about 5pm and lasted for about ten minutes. During both outages, audience members had to exit the theater and rain checks were given out. This outage affected some major tourist areas, disrupting numerous business activities during the island's busiest tourist season.

-- Carl Jenkins (somewherepress@aol.com), January 02, 2000

Answers

"an unknown problem is causing one of their generators to trip at their power plant."

huh? a power generator or a "generator"? I don't understand. Could it be that the world we live in is not what it seems? Could we be living in a "workaround" world?

Why would they need to rely on a generator?

Mike

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-- Mike Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), January 02, 2000.

Power generators and generators are the same thing. Power plants have big generators that typically burn coal, oil, or natural gas and generate electricity. Small generators used for emergency power do the same thing by burning gasoline, etc.

This article was referring to a large generator at a power plant.

-- Meerkat (standing@up.com), January 02, 2000.

Boilers burn the fuel, creating steam, which drives turbines, which drive the generators.

-- paul leblanc (bronyaur@gis.net), January 03, 2000.

Came home Upcountry to the power having been off about 8 p.m. for approx. 15 minutes. No problems now.

-- Patricia (asap@aloha.net), January 03, 2000.

That's because it's on the back-burner Patricia, ha ha ha...

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), January 03, 2000.

Aloha, If the power went out in upcountry Maui, as Patricia says it did, that would be at least the third outage in the last five hours....My home in Kihei has been unaffected thus far...

-- Carl Jenkins (somehwerepress@aol.com), January 03, 2000.

Well flaming squirrels. I'm certain this is just a test. This is only a test. Had this been an actual Y2K incident the media would be reporting it.

Stay indoors and watch out for falling rocks.

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), January 03, 2000.

Hello-

I live in Kihei, had no power problems at all. All the clocks, lights, etc running normally, UPS hasn't tripped.

Jonathan

-A computer glitch didn't bring about the end of civilization. Thankfully, we never got to test the panicking people part of the hypothesis.-

-- Jonathan Latimer (latimer@q-a.net), January 03, 2000.

Only a portion of Kihei along South Kihei Road was impacted, along with other areas throughout Maui. Call Maui Electric and ask....

-- Carl Jenkins (somewherepress@aol.com), January 03, 2000.

Carl- I believe you about the outages...seems sometime a bird pooping on the wire can cause them. :) Heck, I live in a place where 'imclement weather' caused nasty blackouts a few months ago...inclement weather called 'mist', remember? :) :) I am *still* amused by that. Glad MECO never had to deal with snow!

Hang in there, Carl! :)

Jonathan

-A computer glitch didn't bring about the end of civilization. Thankfully, we never got to test the panicking people part of the hypothesis.-

-- Jonathan Latimer (latimer@q-a.net), January 03, 2000.

Typical problem - notice that it never happened in 1999?

-- Robert A Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), January 03, 2000.

Hmmmmmmm, yes indeed Robert. Many, MANY bizarre 'coincidences'. I'm so glad for the change in my thinking 'patterns' that Y2K created.

I consider myself to be far more impressive than I was 18 months ago and *that* was hard to beat!!

:)

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), January 03, 2000.