Kakaako’s Power Grid Bottleneck | Honolulu News

Kakaako’s sky-high growth is hitting a major snag: the power grid can’t keep up with new apartment towers, causing delays and ballooning costs for affordable and workforce housing projects. Hawaiian Electric’s overloaded Kewalo substation is the bottleneck, forcing developers to pay for costly underground upgrades—like the Pohukaina Commons project, now facing a three-year delay. While landowners and state agencies have long planned for this boom, the power infrastructure upgrade won’t be complete until 2027 or 2028, leaving Kakaako’s future development stuck in a slow-motion power struggle. Listen in comfort:Get a discount on a Soli Pillow: http://solipillow.com/discount/dnn. Advertise on DNN:[email protected] This is an automated, high-level news summary based on public reporting.Report issues to [email protected]. View sources & latest updates:https://sources.thednn.ai/23650a1fd7f929bf