Hawaii Water Service Files General Rate Case for Kona Service Area

Hawaii Water Service (Hawaii Water), a subsidiary of California Water Service Group, reports that it has filed a General Rate Case with the Hawai‘i Public Utilities Commission (HPUC) on Monday, March 2, 2019, to seek recovery of capital investments made in its Kukio water and sewer systems, which serve customers in the Kona area of the Big Island. If approved as filed, total annual revenue would increase by $660,216.

The increase includes $452,560 to maintain and upgrade the water system and $207,656 for the sewer system. This reflects, in part, infrastructure improvements made since 2013 to pump, well, electrical, water treatment, water storage tank, and wastewater treatment plant equipment, along with upgrades to both the water and wastewater Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition systems.

“We are committed to delivering safe, reliable, and high-quality water and wastewater services to our Kukio system customers and operating in an environmentally responsible manner, and these investments help enable us to continue doing so,” said Martin A. Kropelnicki, president and CEO of Hawaii Water Service. “We have also worked hard to operate efficiently and keep costs down, all of which enable us to fulfill our promise of providing quality, service, and value to our customers and community.”

To educate the community about the filing, infrastructure upgrades, benefits, and impact, Hawaii Water will host an open house for customers in April.

The HPUC will thoroughly review Hawaii Water’s operations, finances, service, and capital improvements before approving any change in rates. No change is expected to become effective until the fourth quarter of 2019. The last rate increase approved for Kukio was in 2015.

Hawaii Water Service provides water and wastewater service to several communities located on Maui and Big Island of Hawai‘i. Hawaii Water Service is a wholly owned subsidiary of California Water Service Group, which also includes California Water Service, Washington Water Service, New Mexico Water Service, CWS Utility Services, and HWS Utility Services. Together, these companies provide regulated and non-regulated utility service to approximately 2 million people in more than 100 California, Washington, New Mexico, and Hawai‘i communities.  Group’s common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “CWT.”  Additional information is available online.