FEMA-funded power projects to help Hawaii weather disaster-related outages

News admin September 3, 2026 0 Comments

FEMA-funded power projects to help Hawaii weather disaster-related outages

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The Federal Emergency Management Agency is giving Hawaii more than $18 million to help the state weather disaster-related impacts on its electrical grid.

Consumer advocates say the money can’t come soon enough, especially after Hurricane Lala underscored its vulnerability by knocking out power to 60% of Hawaiian Electric’s customers.

Because Hawaii pays the country’s highest electricity rates, community leaders want answers and assurances this won’t happen again.

“The grid is not ready for a major disaster,” said Henry Curtis, executive director of Life of the Land. “If a tropical storm or hurricane passing south of us can impact us, then think of what Lowell is doing, now a Category 5.”

Power grid vulnerabilities

The Public Utilities Commission oversees energy rates and performance and is tasked with holding Hawaiian Electric accountable. Critics say the PUC is not doing enough to keep residents informed about problems that affect them and their wallets.

“We need to have a more public discussion. There needs to be more perhaps legislative investigation,” Curtis said.

“It’s probably something that they just simply were not geared up to deal with, so we need to get additional capital and people to help sort of shore up the system,” said the state’s chief energy officer Mark Glick.

Glick says the Green administration has been pushing as hard as they can to get projects done, but supply chain issues and changing priorities after the Maui wildfires are slowing progress.

“We have to do a lot of work to be able to prepare to help harden the grids, to help make sure that those poles and lines stay in place as much as they can and do all of the tree removals,” he added.

Long-term solutions sought

HECO blames downed albizia trees and other invasive species for many outages.

Long term, the state is looking for ways to boost its supply of reliable, clean energy, and is reviewing a $2 billion proposal to build a liquified natural gas power plant with Japanese energy giant JERA.

Glick says that would free up HECO to focus on transmission, distribution and the grid.

“There needs to be some willingness by the utility to sort of accept solutions that they haven’t been willing to accept in the past, to kind of retool investment,” he said.

Critical customer hubs planned

Meantime, $18.5 million in FEMA funds will help create five “Critical Customer Hubs” in West Maui and Windward Oahu where residents can get emergency services, food, charging access and supplies during extended blackouts.

Money will also go to modernizing grid management, real-time hazard detection, and risk assessments on Maui, Oahu, and Hawaii Island.

Those projects are slated to be completed between 2027 and 2029. The hope is the public isn’t left in the dark about what’s being done to prevent more outages.