Last week the Hawaii Electric Company unveiled details of a much anticipated “public power shutoff” plan to reduce the risk of sparking a wildfire when the weather turns especially windy. It’s the latest move to try and reduce wildfire risk in Hawaii following last year’s deadly blazes on Maui. HECO faced widespread criticism after the Lahaina devastation for not having a shutoff plan in place prior to the fires. Many of the utility’s counterparts in California and other wildfire-prone states on the mainland already had those plans and had used them.
