HONOLULU -- The state consumer protector on Monday called for a formal investigation of the island-wide blackout on Oct. 15.

The public had the first chance to question Hawaiian Electric Co. at a hearing on Monday afternoon at the state Capitol.

About two dozen people attended the meeting. Most of the people seemed to feel that HECO's explanation was so technical they could not figure out if they should be angry or not.

After more than an hour of a PowerPoint presentation about why the electricity went out and why it took so long to come back on, a retired engineer stood up and asked the audience a question.

"How many folks here really understood 50 percent of what was really going on?" retired engineer Henry Schmall asked.

About 10 people raised their hand.

One woman said that during the blackout, all people wanted to know was when it would be over.

"I think that if you people have something written in layman's language it will help," Moiliili resident Martha Shirai said.

HECO agreed with that, but also wanted to explain that its generators are not spread out enough to restore power at essential places first.

"We can't reach from Kahe (power plant), for example, directly to the airport," said Robbie Alm of Hawaiian Electric Industries.

Several retired engineers got HECO executives to admit that no one noticed two essential hydraulic pumps automatically shut down during the quake.

"We're not sure exactly what the reasons was, but we know that the lockouts locked the pumps out of service," Tim Simmons of HECO said.

A formal Public Utilities Commission inquiry means that HECO executives and employees maybe placed under oath and the company forced by subpoena to provide internal documents to investigators, if the consumer protector gets her way.

Last week the governor said she was not ready to ask for that kind of an investigation, but the governor's spokesman said she now supports an official PUC investigation.