Hawaiʻi to Receive $18.5M to Fund Grid Resilience and Hazard Mitigation Projects

The Hawaiʻi State Energy Office, in partnership with Hawaiian Electric and the Hawai'i Emergency Management Agency (HIEMA), has secured $18.5 million in federal funding to support $25 million in investments aimed at enhancing grid resilience and hazard mitigation on Maui, Hawaiʻi Island and Oʻahu.

The funding will support five projects scheduled for completion between 2027 and 2029 and will focus on identifying and mitigating the rising occurrence of risks to the electrical grid from natural hazards such as wildfires, flooding and hurricanes.

"These investments will improve the resilience of Hawaiʻi's energy infrastructure and ensure a reliable power supply to critical community facilities when needed," said Hawai'i Chief Energy Officer Mark Glick.

The projects include establishing five Critical Customer Hubs (CCHs) that will allow proximate community lifelines to remain operational during prolonged outages in West Maui and the Koʻolaupoko region of Windward Oʻahu, developing a digital twin of the grid to enable early detection of power quality issues, upgrading Energy Management System (EMS) platforms to allow for real-time monitoring and conducting a hazard risk assessment for Maui.

Upgrades will result in fewer power outages, quicker restoration of service and the ability to rapidly de-energize parts of the grid to ensure safety. CCHs as a new approach to local energy resilience, allow critical facilities - such as fire stations, police stations, medical facilities, grocery stores, pharmacies and fuel stations - to remain operational even when the grid fails.

"By identifying risks to our energy infrastructure and strengthening our mitigation projects like the Critical Customer Hubs, we are ensuring that essential lifelines remain operational for our communities during and after extreme weather events," said HIEMA Administrator David Lopez.

Projects Overview:

1. West Maui Electric Grid Hazard Identification and Mapping - $0.95 million

2. Distribution Digital Twin (DDT) Grid Modeling - $1 million

3. Energy Management System (EMS) Platform Modernization for the Maui and Hawai'i Island Grids - $4.8 million

4. Critical Customer Hubs at Lahaina Civic Center and Cannery Mall - $6.7 million

5. Critical Customer Hubs at Windward Mall (Kāne'ohe), 'Ōlomana (Kailua), and Waimānalo - $11.9 million