Hawaiian Electric will resume critical resilience projects such as replacing utility poles – work normally done before hurricane season but delayed due to COVID-19 and stay-at-home orders. Customers will be notified if the scheduled work requires outages. Because so many people are now working or schooling from home, Hawaiian Electric will also try to pinpoint the expected length of the outage.
Hawaiian Electric will be removing temporary overhead jumper lines and replacing aging and damaged utility poles. Hundreds of poles and transformers will be replaced through the end of 2020 with higher-priority jobs scheduled first.
Hawaiian Electric asks the public to refrain from approaching Hawaiian Electric crews while they are on the job, but if it’s necessary, everybody is asked to maintain a distance of at least six feet. Hawaiian Electric crews will practice physical distancing to the extent possible.