Thousands of people were left without power in Hawaii after Hurricane Lala bulldozed its way across the Pacific Ocean. While it never officially made landfall, the impacts were devastating.
The damage done to Hawaiian Electric’s equipment left the utility in need of support to help accelerate the restoration of power to customers on Hawaii Island, also known as the Big Island, which was the hardest hit by the storm.
After they sent out a call for mutual assistance, Southern California Edison crews raised their hands to aid the electric company in repairs so power can be restored to customers left in the dark on Hawaii island.
“Whenever a sister utility asks for help, we always try to answer that call,” said Rebecca Relyea, a senior advisor at SCE who leads the logistics around mutual assistance. “We have a strong relationship with Hawaiian Electric and jumped at the chance to help them.”
SCE lineworkers and support staff depart for Hawaii, where they will help restore power to thousands of residents left in the dark.
This is not the first time SCE has helped a neighboring utility, but it is the first time crews — of any kind — have done so in Hawaii.
“This is a first for us,” said Jim Kelly, Hawaiian Electric’s vice president of Government and Community Relations and Corporate Communications. “We have never brought in crews from the continent to help us after a storm before, but we are very appreciative to SCE for getting here so quickly.”
The request: five distribution crews made up of 25 lineworkers and two ten-man transmission crews touching down in Hawaii on Thursday, accompanied by 13 support staff members.
Distribution crews will partner with the local utility to replace and repair power poles, downed wire, broken cross arms and damaged transformers. The transmission crews will focus on the larger equipment responsible for transporting power across long distances.
Partnering with Hawaiian Electric crews, SCE will be focusing some of the work within the more rural locations of the island — deep in hard-to-reach, heavily forested terrain. The Ka‘ū District, among the areas hardest hit by the storm, is the same size as Orange County but with vastly different topography.
“This will definitely be a lot different from the conditions our crews usually work in, but I've seen firsthand the professionalism and dedication our crews bring to mutual assistance efforts, and I'm confident they will make a meaningful difference for the people of this island,” said Travis Parks, an SCE principal manager in Transmission and Distribution.
SCE's mutual assistance team discusses a plan for restoring power to Hawaiian Electric's service area after Hurricane Lala.
Before sending mutual assistance resources, SCE analyzes the current conditions in its service area. After verifying there are no current threats, the number of resources available is determined.
For now, the crews are on loan until Hawaiian Electric no longer needs the help, which could be for a few weeks, depending on the extent of the repairs. But there is another storm arriving this weekend that could complicate the repair work.
“This industry really is a brotherhood, so if we can help, we do,” said Parks. “There was a time not so long ago that we asked for help and it showed up for us."
For more information on how to prepare for specific emergencies, visit Storm Safety Preparedness.
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