Fellows mentioned in this story: Colton Ching

From Civil Beat:

As Lahaina looks to rebuild, Maui’s largest power provider says it’s open to using microgrids, which allow clusters of nearby homes and buildings to access stored power during an outage, in order to boost the energy grid’s overall resiliency there.

But creating such grids within a grid can be difficult and complex – and they’ll only appear in Lahaina if the West Maui community ultimately supports it, a Hawaiian Electric executive said.

Nonetheless, microgrids could help the utility finally create a public safety power shutoff program to de-energize its power lines ahead of severe weather and reduce risks of sparking a wildfire, according to Colton Ching, Hawaiian Electric’s vice president for planning and technology.

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