Hawaiian Electric seeks approval for wildfire safety work

Yahoo

3 days ago

Typical residential customers of the state's largest utility could see their monthly bill rise between $1 and $5.50 to cover costs of an expanded three-year wildfire safety plan.
Hawaiian Electric disclosed the cost estimates in a plan update filed with the state Public Utilities Commission on Friday.
The safety plan for work through 2027 is subject to PUC approval, and the utility anticipates that bills won't likely increase for plan work until 2026.
Ratepayer cost estimates vary by island where the cost and scope of planned improvements are different and add up to $350 million for Maui County, Oahu and Hawaii island. Kauai has an electric utility owned by ratepayers.
The biggest Hawaiian Electric investments in wildfire safety are slated for Maui, where a wind-driven inferno determined to have originated from a downed company power line killed 102 people and destroyed most of Lahaina on Aug. 8, 2023.
Hawaiian Electric said it plans to spend $181 million on wildfire safety work throughout Maui County, but mainly on Maui where the state's wildfire risk is highest. This work, the company said, should cost a typical residential customer $5.41 more per month.
Work on Maui is to initially include putting underground about two miles of overhead power lines in critical safety areas in Lahaina determined with the help of a community working group providing area-­­specific knowledge and input.
Hawaiian Electric said this initial work in Lahaina will be a pilot project that informs planning for future undergrounding of power lines in the West Maui town and other areas.
On Oahu, safety plan work is expected to cost $68 million and result in a typical residential customer's monthly bill rising by $1.05.
Work on Hawaii island is expected to cost $101 million and have a $2.86 monthly bill impact.
A typical residential customer uses 500 kilowatt-­hours of electricity a month.
Not all of the cost for wildfire safety work under the plan will be borne by ratepayers. Hawaiian Electric said some of the expense is being covered by existing programs, including a $95 million federal grant for grid resilience received in 2024.
Hawaiian Electric in a news release noted that bill impacts from the planned work may be reduced if the company can use a financing strategy that the Legislature approved in a bill passed April 30.
Senate Bill 897 authorizes the PUC to let the company issue long-term bonds that finance safety infrastructure work and are repaid through customer billing. This form of financing, known as securitization, is less costly for Hawaiian Electric than other forms of available debt.
Gov. Josh Green has yet to act on SB 897. His office in written testimony raised some concerns about various drafts of the bill that were different than what lawmakers passed.
'The Companies will take advantage of that option if /when it becomes available, ' Hawaiian Electric said in the filing, referring to its subsidiaries on different islands.
Hawaiian Electric said about two-thirds of wildfire safety work will be capital investments in upgraded physical infrastructure, with the other third to be spent on operations and maintenance that includes enhanced equipment inspections and removal or trimming of thousands of hazardous trees.
Other specific work to be done under the plan include :—Insulating wire power lines in highest risk areas to prevent sparking if a line touches another line or falls to the ground.—Replacing and strengthening poles.—Installing more weather stations and hazard-detection cameras.—Expanding AI-assisted video camera stations to enable 100 % coverage of all high and medium wildfire risk areas.—Creating a wildfire watch office that includes a meteorologist to monitor media reports, internal and external weather information and field reports to provide more situational awareness for operations.—Using a wildfire risk model to inform real-time decision-making and to refine the company's Public Safety Power Shutoff program so that shutoffs, if necessary, can be more precise and shorter.
'The (plan ) is designed to provide public safety, wildfire risk mitigation, reliability and resilience benefits for the Companies' customers and the State as a whole, ' Hawaiian Electric said in the filing.
The plan filed with regulators Friday updates a less-detailed 'blueprint ' filed with the PUC in January that had a $450 million estimated cost and scope of work that Hawaiian Electric then said could change with refinements.
Hawaiian Electric created its first wildfire mitigation plan in 2019, which did not include a power safety shutoff program. The plan was updated in the months after the Maui wildfire disaster, and many upgrades and operational changes have been implemented since then, including the shutoff program begun in July.
The wildfire that struck Lahaina caused an estimated $5.5 billion in property damage. A $4 billion settlement of fire victim litigation is to be mostly paid for by the utility, the state and landowner Kamehameha Schools.
Hawaiian Electric's share of the settlement is $2 billion. It is to be paid over four years and not add to customer bills. The parent of the utility, Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc., raised capital for the first payment by selling new shares of stock. Additional payment funding is expected to be raised through issuing debt and equity in HEI.
BY THE NUMBERS Hawaiian Electric 2025-2027 wildfire safety plan estimated costs :—Total : $350 million—Maui County : $181 million—Hawaii island : $101 million—Oahu : $68 million Monthly bill impacts ----Maui County : $5.41—Hawaii island : $2.86—Oahu : $1.05 —Residential customer using 500 kilowatt-hours of electricity