Utility Discount Rate for Customers with Special Medical Needs

Utility officials would like to remind Hawaiian Electric, Maui Electric and Hawaiʻi Electric Light customers that space is still available for a discounted electricity rate for customers with special medical needs.

Hawai’i Electric Light’s Hilo office on Kilauea Avenue. File photo by Dave Smith.

The program is for customers who are dependent on life-support equipment or increased heating or cooling due to a medical condition. Those who qualify can save up to $20 a month on the first 500 kWh of energy use. Electric use above 500 kWh per month will be charged at regular residential rates.

The two-year pilot program is limited to 2,000 customers only.

Applications are available online or by calling 969-6999 in Hilo, 329-3584 in Kona or 885-4605 in Waimea.

Completed forms will require the signature of a licensed, Hawaiʻi-based physician. Forms can be returned in person or by mail.

To qualify, a customer or a full-time resident in a customer’s house must be:

– Dependent on a life-support device used in the home to sustain life or relied upon for mobility as detemined by a licensed physician, including but not limited to the following: aerosol tents; apnea monitors; hemodialysis machines; compressors; electric nerve stimulators; pressure pumps; electostatic nebulizers; and intermittent positive pressure breathing machines.

– A paraplegic, hemiplegic, quadriplegic, multiple sclerosis or scleroderma patient with special heating and/or cooling needs.

Other equipment needs may also qualify for the discount and will be evaluated individually. A person with special needs may only qualify for the discount at a single service address.