Questions for Hawaiian Electric
Q: How is it that a lightning strike at the Kahe power plant on the Waianae Coast – if that was the cause – could knock out the entire grid?
Q: Since the islands are isolated from other grids, what measures have been designed into the system to guard against what happened last night?
Q: Why didn’t the system isolate the problem at the Kahe plant and preserve the viability of the Waiau and downtown Honolulu plants?
Q: Why did measures fail that presumably were designed into the system to prevent such an eventuality?
Q: Were circuit breakers timed to react quickly enough to isolate Kahe and protect the rest of the grid? (That was the cause of the island-wide power outage on “Black Wednesday” -- July 13, 1983.)
Q: Did HECO’s load shedding occur according to plan, or did the Waiau and Honolulu plants shut down because load shedding didn’t happen quickly enough?
Questions for Clear Channel
Q: Do the on-air emergency broadcast personalities truly believe island-wide outages are to be expected routinely because Hawaii is not connected to a larger grid?
Q: Have our emergency broadcasters received training from Hawaiian Electric officials to help them grasp the complexities of the grid so they in turn can speak intelligently about power emergencies?
Q: How does KSSK owner Clear Channel believe an emergency broadcast outlet should operate during an emergency?
Q: Is that operating philosophy “entertainment as usual”? Is the station’s award-winning weekday morning team told to adopt an “entertainment” or “emergency” model during power outages?
Q: Should on-air personalities be dismissive of callers who question the electric company’s ability to measure up to reliability standards? I.E., is it their role to defend the utility’s performance? Does management want them to ask probing questions about that performance?
Q: Considering the operational possibilities, would it be in the public interest for an emergency broadcaster to discourage listeners from calling the station except for urgent matters?
Q: Might it be a good operating principle to keep the incoming phone lines open for police messages, government officials’ statements, medical advisories, persons stuck in elevators, and the rest?
Q: Should station ratings made during non-crisis times be used to judge whether an emergency broadcaster has acted in the public interest during an emergency? (Such a justification was used to defend KSSK’s performance following Earthquake Sunday.)
Q: Why did KSSK-FM go off the air repeatedly in the early hours of the outage? As a sister station to the AM designated emergency station, shouldn’t the FM station’s generator operate on demand when required to do so? What tests and rehearsals does the emergency broadcaster conduct to ensure all its stations remain on the air during an emergency?
Questions for State Civil Defense
Q: Did your office attempt to activate the emergency broadcast “interrupt” service that cuts into regular programming across the state? Governor Lingle’s voice came on, then cut out at one point during the evening.
Q: Why didn’t the system isolate the problem at the Kahe plant and preserve the viability of the Waiau and downtown Honolulu plants?
Q: Why did measures fail that presumably were designed into the system to prevent such an eventuality?
Q: Were circuit breakers timed to react quickly enough to isolate Kahe and protect the rest of the grid? (That was the cause of the island-wide power outage on “Black Wednesday” -- July 13, 1983.)
Q: Did HECO’s load shedding occur according to plan, or did the Waiau and Honolulu plants shut down because load shedding didn’t happen quickly enough?
Questions for Clear Channel
Q: Do the on-air emergency broadcast personalities truly believe island-wide outages are to be expected routinely because Hawaii is not connected to a larger grid?
Q: Have our emergency broadcasters received training from Hawaiian Electric officials to help them grasp the complexities of the grid so they in turn can speak intelligently about power emergencies?
Q: How does KSSK owner Clear Channel believe an emergency broadcast outlet should operate during an emergency?
Q: Is that operating philosophy “entertainment as usual”? Is the station’s award-winning weekday morning team told to adopt an “entertainment” or “emergency” model during power outages?
Q: Should on-air personalities be dismissive of callers who question the electric company’s ability to measure up to reliability standards? I.E., is it their role to defend the utility’s performance? Does management want them to ask probing questions about that performance?
Q: Considering the operational possibilities, would it be in the public interest for an emergency broadcaster to discourage listeners from calling the station except for urgent matters?
Q: Might it be a good operating principle to keep the incoming phone lines open for police messages, government officials’ statements, medical advisories, persons stuck in elevators, and the rest?
Q: Should station ratings made during non-crisis times be used to judge whether an emergency broadcaster has acted in the public interest during an emergency? (Such a justification was used to defend KSSK’s performance following Earthquake Sunday.)
Q: Why did KSSK-FM go off the air repeatedly in the early hours of the outage? As a sister station to the AM designated emergency station, shouldn’t the FM station’s generator operate on demand when required to do so? What tests and rehearsals does the emergency broadcaster conduct to ensure all its stations remain on the air during an emergency?
Questions for State Civil Defense
Q: Did your office attempt to activate the emergency broadcast “interrupt” service that cuts into regular programming across the state? Governor Lingle’s voice came on, then cut out at one point during the evening.
Q. Did that system fail last night?
Q: How much money has been spent over the past two years to upgrade SCD’s emergency communications capability?
Question for the White House
Q: Is Hawaii off limits for President Obama in light of last night’s power blackout?
Listeners have heaped praise on KSSK’s broadcast team, and Clear Channel management is unlikely to take any of these questions seriously. Nevertheless, the public has a right to ask them and demand more from its emergency responders.
That said, we have to note that the City & County’s Emergency Management Center was operational and providing information over the air sooner than just about any other source last night. That’s a good contrast to the criticism it took after the recent flooding.
Citizens demanding better performance can’t hurt and may in fact do some good.
Q: How much money has been spent over the past two years to upgrade SCD’s emergency communications capability?
Question for the White House
Q: Is Hawaii off limits for President Obama in light of last night’s power blackout?
Listeners have heaped praise on KSSK’s broadcast team, and Clear Channel management is unlikely to take any of these questions seriously. Nevertheless, the public has a right to ask them and demand more from its emergency responders.
That said, we have to note that the City & County’s Emergency Management Center was operational and providing information over the air sooner than just about any other source last night. That’s a good contrast to the criticism it took after the recent flooding.
Citizens demanding better performance can’t hurt and may in fact do some good.
It certainly seems to me that the very fact that Hawaii cannot connect to another power grid would compel Hawaiian Electric to have some kind of fail proof backup system to ensure power in situations like the one that happened last night. Shouldn't The State of Hawaii or the City and County of Honolulu mandate that such a system be in place? Are we to expect to be with out power for 20 hours (Hawaii Kai) every time a branch falls on some power lines or a lightning strike hits a transformer?
ReplyDeleteThanks for your observation, "Anonymous." Good questions that until now have been answered with a variation on the theme that "We could gold plate the system, but at what cost?" A relatively minor storm shut down the island, and citizens like you are asking why that should be so. Stay tuned, as this incident will take some sorting out.
ReplyDeleteMr. Carlson:
ReplyDeleteYou raise/ask good questions and everyone of them deserve an answer.
I'm waiting.
Also, I was particularly offended at the caviler and disrespectful responses made to some "call in" listeners who contributed what seemed to be useful and/or intelligent comments. Put downs and insults should not be the coin of the realm when Oahu is experiencing a complete and total power outage.
Furthermore, did the notion of "hard questions" directed at HECO ever enter the minds of Hawaii's biggest air heads, Perry & Price? Seems like they were more an extension of HECO's PR Department. Shameful in the extreme!
Keep up the good work, Mr. Carlson. Your work and the questions you raise deserve wider coverage.
cmj