HONOLULU (KHON2) — Hawaiian Electric’s (HECO) expanded wildfire safety plan hopes to prevent tragedies like Lahaina from happening again. The company has already upgraded or tested miles of power lines and poles, it says there’s more work to be done.
HECO plans to fortify its infrastructure with new technology to reduce wildfire risks. The company plans to install more artificial intelligence-assisted high-definition cameras, which help detect wildfires early on as well as more weather stations to more precisely forecast changes in weather.
Part of the work will involve undergrounding two miles of overhead powerlines in Lahaina and potentially upgrading or replacing wooden poles near the town.
“Undergrounding has a lot of benefits. It has a lot of challenges as well,” stated HECO Spokesperson Darren Pai. “That’s something that we’re working with the community on. We want to have the right solution in the right place. The right equipment in the right place to meet the needs of serving our customers in that area.”
The new three-year safety plan will cost about $450 million including $137 million budgeted for work in 2025. HECO stated it is unsure how customer rates will be impacted and will be following up with the Public Utilities Commission for more information.
“We’re trying to pursue federal funding and to mitigate the cost. Some of this is still to be determined,” Pai said. “But, this is a really significant investment in trying to protect our community and make it even safer.”
According to HECO, many initiatives are already underway, including work completed in 2024:
- Replaced and upgraded 2,124 wood poles
- Tested 5,805 poles
- Replaced more than 23 miles of older overhead lines with new, more resilient lines
- Installed 3,177 single-phase fault current indicators, which allow crews to more quickly locate disturbances on lines in high-risk areas
- Installed 3,558 sparkless fuses, which help reduce the risk of ignition
- Changed 213 substation relay settings to shut off power quickly if a disruption is detected
- Installed 53 weather stations in wildfire-prone areas on four islands to provide key information about wind, temperature, and humidity to help the company better predict and respond to fire weather conditions. The weather stations, mounted on utility poles, provide meteorological data that will help the company decide whether to activate and deactivate a Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS)
- Installed 44 artificial intelligence-assisted high-definition wildfire detection cameras
- Installed 680 new lightning arrestors