More than 60 Hawaiian Electric Co. customers showed up at the state Capitol yesterday to question why the utility took so long to restore power after last Sunday's outage.

During the 2 1/2-hour meeting, O'ahu residents grilled HECO executives about the causes of the blackout and asked what steps the company is taking to avoid future outages.

Several criticized HECO's limited communications during the outage, saying the company could have done more to tell the public how it was going about restoring power.

"The length of time (for power restoration) seemed to be excessive to the point where I would say it is unacceptable," said Kailua retiree Roger Wickenden. "It represents a likelihood that mistakes have been made either in implementing the system or managing it."

Yesterday's public briefing was the public's first opportunity to question HECO executives about the outage, which was triggered by a 6.7 magnitude earthquake near the Big Island.

HECO said it was necessary to shut down power to all 291,000 of its customers once its generators began to go off line to avoid damaging the machinery. Such damage could have led to outages lasting days, if not weeks, the company said.

HECO executives also said they had to restore power gradually to avoid overloading its system, which would have cause further delays in getting the electricity back up.

SEEKING ANSWERS

"I don't think at this point we have identified anything that we can do differently," said Tom Joaquin, HECO senior vice president of operations.

"That's why we have to do this investigation so we can find things. We don't want to be vulnerable and we want to correct it. If we had found something we would have done it already."

HECO said it has hired Idaho-based consulting firm Power Engineers to conduct an investigation and will provide a report to the state Public Utilities Commission by the end of December.

State Consumer Advocate Catherine Awakuni has asked the PUC to conduct a formal investigation into the causes of the outage. The PUC, which regulates HECO's rates, has the power to fine the local utility company if it is determined the company was negligent.

Hawai'i Kai resident Greg Robinson questioned why it took so long to get power restored.

Robinson, a former manager for a local escrow company, said he was waiting for his flight to Honolulu from Phoenix when the outage hit that morning. He said his flight on ATA Airlines was canceled, forcing him to take a flight to San Diego, then Oakland before flying to Honolulu.

"It seems like our system is so fragile that we have to shut down the system each time the ground is shaking," Robinson said.

Makiki retiree Bill Pelzer asked whether HECO could have done better by relying on automated systems rather than human judgment to keep the system going.

"All of the (HECO) people who were involved were acting competently. I don't think anybody with any amount of training would have done better," said Pelzer, who stayed in his 13th-floor apartment all day last Sunday because he has a pacemaker and could not take the stairs when the elevators stopped.

"However, I feel that reliance on human beings to make decisions that should be made in split seconds is part of the problem."

Marian Grey of Hawai'i Kai wanted to know why power was restored on O'ahu much later than on the Big Island, which was closer to the quake's epicenter.

HECO officials have said that its O'ahu system relies on larger, more complicated generating units that take longer to return to normal operations than the smaller, diesel-powered ones on the other islands.

'Aiea resident Alex McGehee, a economic development specialist, said he didn't experience much inconvenience last Sunday since his neighborhood is close to the Waiau power plant and was one of the first to see its power restored.

"I'm buying what they are saying," said McGehee, who said he got his electricity back around 2 p.m.

But McGehee and Mo'ili'ili resident Martha Shirai said HECO could improve on how it communicated with the public during the crisis. Shirai, a retired teacher, read a message HECO might broadcast that included describing how the power was being restored and where it was going to be restored first and how long the public should expect to have their lights out.

"I think most people just wanted to know when was I going to get my power back on," Shirai said.

Reach Rick Daysog at rdaysog@honoluluadvertiser.com.