Power has been restored to all customers after a “highly unusual” short circuit at a Maalaea substation caused about 65,000 people across the island to lose power at around 2:45 a.m. Tuesday, according to Hawaiian Electric.
As of 9:15 a.m., crews were continuing work to restore power to a remaining 15,000 customers in areas of Upcountry and East Maui, including Paia and Haiku, and pockets in Central and West Maui. Power was restored to most customers by 10:15 a.m., and the remaining customers were all back online by 2 p.m.
The power outage was caused by a high-voltage short circuit at a substation in Maalaea, which triggered generating units to trip offline, Hawaiian Electric said.
“This is a highly unusual event — the last outage to affect a large number of Maui customers occurred after a lightning storm in 2017 — and the company is looking into the cause of the short circuit,” Hawaiian Electric said in a statement shortly before 3:30 p.m.
Internet and phone service had also been restored for offices at the Maui County Service Center in Kahului, except for the Transient Accommodations Tax Office, as of noon, the county Department of Finance reported.
All Division of Motor Vehicle and Licensing transactions are being accepted.
Work is ongoing to ensure that credit and debit card transactions can be processed by staff in the Real Property Tax Division, the county said. Following the power outage, property tax and utility payments were accepted by cash or check only. Receipts were provided manually.
Power was also restored to the Pukalani Satellite Office for the DMVL by 1 p.m.
The state Department of Education closed more than a dozen Maui campuses due to the power outage.
In West Maui, the impacted campuses are King Kamehameha III Elementary, Princess Nahienaena Elementary, Lahaina Intermediate and Lahainaluna High School.
In Upcountry and East Maui, the closed schools are Haiku Elementary, Paia Elementary, Pukalani Elementary, Kula Elementary, Kalama Intermediate, Makawao Elementary and King Kekaulike High School.
In Central Maui, the affected campuses include Iao Intermediate, Pomaikai Elementary and Wailuku Elementary.
Anyone who is still experiencing an outage should reset their home breaker or contact the Hawaiian Electric Maui County Trouble Line at (808) 871-7777.
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