Solar + Batteries Help the Grid Recover in Kaua’i
On Sunday a cable failure took the largest power plant on the island of Kaua’i in Hawaii offline, which led to cascading failures in other oil-fired and hydro power plants, leading to a 2+ hour blackout for the island’s 66,000 residents. Despite work on the Port Allen oil-fired power plant continuing and still waiting on parts to repair the Kapaia oil-fired power plant which started it all, the Kaua’i Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) did not have to implement further rolling blackouts on Tuesday. This was in part due to the contributions of solar and storage.