Hawaiian Electric Customers to See Lower Rates as Oil Prices Drop

Hawaiian Electric customers on Hawai‘i Island can expect to see lower rates this month as oil prices significantly drop for the first time since spring.

Customers will also see lower rates on Maui, Lāna‘i and Moloka‘i, according to HECO. O‘ahu customers will see a smaller rate increase than expected with the shutdown of the AES coal-fired power plant.

HECO forecasts Big Island customers will see bills drop by 6% or about $16. Moloka‘i will see the most change where HECO officials say customer bills will be down 14% or about $34.

Maui is expected to go down 5% or $11, on Lāna‘i it’s expected to drop 9% or about $22.

These are projected impacts on a typical residential bill for electricity used in September, which will be included in bills most customers receive in October.

“Even with the lower rates, typical bills on all islands are still higher than in March before oil prices began to surge,” HECO officials stated.

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While electric bills are forecasted to drop, O‘ahu customers are expected to see up to 4% or about $9 increase in monthly bills.

The rates for O‘ahu are the result of lower oil prices and the addition of the Clearway Mililani I 39-megawatt solar project to the grid. Its contracted price of 9 cents per kilowatt-hour is less than a third the cost of oil used for power generation.

Commercial customers will see kilowatt-hour rates up about 2 cents, lower than the 3 cents forecast.