The
company also announced other steps including deploying spotters
in risk prone locations as well as expanding inspections of
poles and lines.
Just a few months earlier, the company had defended its policy
to not implement steps such as de-energizing during the deadly
wildfires in Maui.
In September, the company's CEO Shelee Kimura had said a
pre-emptive shutdown of power lines was not part of the
utility's protocol, even as Hawaiian Electric was bracing for
high winds of more than 60 miles (96.56 km) per hour.
She had said that long-held protocol relied on the closure of
problem electrical circuits and not de-energizing them. The
utility studied pre-emptive shutdowns of power, but Kimura said
such a protocol "was not an appropriate fit for Hawaii".
Hawaiian Electric added it is advancing its work on a $190
million grid resilience plan to face against wildfires,
hurricanes, tsunami and flooding.
(Reporting by Sourasis Bose in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna
Chandra Eluri)
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