Students Work to Reduce Energy Usage

Molokai LIVE News Release

Last month, a group of Molokai Middle School students were trained by Maui Electric staff on the Smart Power for Schools Program. This exciting new program, started by Maui Electric in 2015, allows students to view energy usage in real time at Molokai Middle School and other public schools across the state. Students can look at the peak times that their school uses energy during the day and compare the energy usage with other schools. Using the Power Scope Meter, they are able to determine when power spikes occur to develop energy conservation practices.

The Molokai Middle School students who received this training are Divine Brown, Barbara Simon, Leah Lavoie-Vega, Kathleen Alvarez, Thalia Meyer, Reina Kahue-Cabanting, Owen Svetin, and Isaiah Hanchett-Lopez. The students plan to use the Smart Power Program to help make recommendations about the school’s energy usage and future conservation measures.

“I really enjoyed learning how much energy our school uses on a daily basis and ways we all could work together to decrease the spikes and surges of energy,” said Divine.

According to Barbara, “We learned that if we reach a certain amount of electric usage we could overload the system. And since our island makes electricity from the burning of fossil fuels, which is bad for our environment, we want to work with Maui Electric to lower the amount of fossil fuels being burned.”

Students agreed that this program is important.

“I believe that we should conserve energy because we need to think about future generations and if they will be able to have enough energy. We can cut usage by targeting usage times and reducing the amount of power we use during those time periods,” said Leah.

In the future, students could use this information to raise awareness in the school about how much money could be saved and used for other resources by conserving electricity.

In its fourth of five years, Molokai LIVE offers after school programs to our island’s middle and high school students, preparing students to be college and career ready by sparking intellectual curiosity, improving scholastic results and sharpening leadership potential.

For more information, to collaborate and volunteer in creating unique and relevant learning opportunities for our youth, contact Molokai LIVE at 567-7115 or Lyn Bonk by email, lynbonk@gmail.com.