Hawaiian Electric made significant progress in 2025 on downtown Honolulu, Chinatown service upgrades

Hawaiian Electric made significant progress in 2025 on downtown Honolulu, Chinatown service upgrades

All manhole, vault inspections completed; equipment replacement continues

Release Date: 3/3/2026

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HONOLULU, March 3, 2026 - Hawaiian Electric made significant progress in 2025 in its efforts to improve service to downtown Honolulu and Chinatown, replacing transformers, underground cables, and other infrastructure as part of a comprehensive, multiyear action plan.

"Work on the infrastructure serving downtown keeps moving forward and shows our focus on reliability and safety," said Jim Alberts, Hawaiian Electric senior vice president and chief operations officer. "Last year, our crews completed key maintenance projects and upgrades to ensure we meet the needs of our customers."

Hawaiian Electric began a program for repairs and upgrades of the system serving downtown in 2018. The company accelerated and expanded its plans after a long outage in June 2024 affected thousands of residents and hundreds of businesses. Most of the work is expected to be completed by 2029. By the end of the decade, Hawaiian Electric will have spent about $183 million on grid improvements downtown.

Work completed in 2025 includes:

• Replaced 5.3 miles of underground cable on two separate circuits
• Inspected all 187 manholes
• Inspected all 140 vaults
• Replaced 6 network transformers/protectors
• Replaced 2 network protectors
• Replaced two manhole top slabs to restore structural integrity

In 2026, crews will replace underground cables, upgrade substation equipment, and install new infrastructure. Drivers may face delays, lane closures, and parking restrictions due to this work. Traffic control measures will direct vehicles around job sites. Maintenance on the downtown network is complicated by underground equipment, tight spaces near high-voltage cables. High tides and heavy rain can flood manholes, requiring water removal before safe access.

Built in the 1950s and expanded through the 1980s, the downtown network features miles of underground power cables beneath Honolulu's streets. Designed with redundancies, it ensures service for customers in the area, including banks, government offices and other buildings.