×

Electrical grid in Hawaii needs to be modernized

Hawaii is such an amazing and beautiful place. It’s only natural that we’re very careful about making any big changes. Big changes may improve things, but there’s always the fear that we’ll make big mistakes.

But we’re not at all concerned with a lot of little changes. We can all upgrade our cellphones every 18 months without a second thought. A 2-year-old phone is just too old. A 4-year-old computer is too slow and unreliable. A 6-year-old TV gets upgraded for a better picture quality.

But all these upgraded electronics are powered by an electrical grid that is getting old and desperately needs an upgrade. Unfortunately, we can’t just trade in our old and inefficient electric company for a newer model every 18 months.

With an aging power grid, we’ll tend to have more electrical outages and the outages last longer when compared to modern smart grids. It’s also making it harder to hook up homes that install new solar systems, and causing us to waste a lot of the wind energy we produce on Maui.

A modern smart grid could connect the islands to make power more reliable and cleaner for everyone. It’s a big change, but one we need to make. Otherwise, we’ll find out that it doesn’t matter how smart our phones are if we can’t charge the batteries.

Rebecca Ashton

Kula

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper?
     
Support Local Journalism on Maui

Only $99/year

Subscribe Today