A spotlight on our engineers

by Robert Yang | Feb. 26, 2022

An engineer’s role is to design and build — and solve problems — in all kinds of different areas.

Before we close out National Engineers Week, I wanted to shine a spotlight on the many engineers in our company because they do a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure we provide safe and reliable electrical service to our customers. Here’s a look at some of the other fields in engineering and what they’re doing to keep the power on for everyone.

Our Transmission and Distribution (T&D) engineers work directly with customers to figure out how to execute projects involving overhead and underground infrastructure. When designing a project, T&D engineers ensure our employees are able to safely complete the project. These engineers are involved in building new facilities to be sure they are safe for our customers to use and be around.

Karen Lung, a T&D Engineer II on Oahu, recently worked with the City and County of Honolulu to relocate utility poles and other equipment near Kailua Beach Park as part of the city’s intersection improvement program. The timely completion of the project relied on constant communication between the city and our field crews.

T&D engineers also design plans to connect new customers to the grid. Donna Mizuba, a T&D engineer III on Oahu, helped design the extension of electrical lines to power the brand new Hoopili community nestled between Kapolei and Ewa Beach. The project required a new substation, which is rare these days.

Substations are intermediary facilities that connect our generating facilities to utility poles and deliver energy to our customers. Substation engineers design this infrastructure and their devices such as circuit breakers, relays and reclosers, which helps computers detect problems such as broken wires or a short circuit before it causes damage to our equipment. The substation also sends data back to us, which helps us resolve the issue remotely if an emergency occurs.

Leanne and Caralyn King, twin substation engineers on Hawaii Island, noted: “We do a lot of proactive, preventative maintenance projects. We’re constantly looking at ways to maintain, upgrade or replace parts before they become problematic. This reduces the number of outages for our customers.”

Our power generation engineers implement and manage maintenance projects that keep our generating units functioning reliably and safely. While they don’t interact with customers directly, their work touches everyone. Because of their work, when you flip a switch, your electrical devices turn on.

Curtis Omuro, a 26-year veteran in the engineering field on Maui, is working to improve the way we treat demineralized water at Maalaea Generating Station. Water is used to prevent our generating units from overheating. “I’m proud that my passion for solving problems and learning can help our customers live comfortably,” Curtis said.

Brandon Gushiken, another engineer on Maui with over 25 years of experience, underscores the importance of Hawaii needing quality engineers. “In Maui County alone, we support four power plants. We need to generate high-quality energy around the clock to keep the lights on for our residential and commercial customers,” Brandon said. “But more importantly, we need to be able to support our growing kupuna population that rely on us for their medical equipment and other vital technologies.”

Our engineers say that for this career path, you need to have the right attitude, especially when you don’t know the answer to a question. Successful engineers are open-minded and have a willingness to embrace ideas from others and learn from them. No matter what area of engineering it may be, it’s a career that involves constant learning, which keeps it fun, exciting and challenging, they say.

Mahalo to all our engineers for helping to provide safe and reliable electrical service for the communities we serve.

Robert Yang is a digital communications and social media specialist at Hawaiian Electric.