Monitoring Hawaiian Electric’s Progress

Performance Incentive Mechanisms

In 2023, there were 10 PIMs guiding the utility’s performance, including several shared savings mechanisms (“SSMs”) that are similar to PIMs. The following list provides a brief explanation of the goal of the PIM:

  • Advanced Metering Infrastructure (“AMI”) PIM: accelerate the number of customers with AMI enabled to support time-varying rates, energy efficiency, and DER programs
  • Call Center PIM: ensure customer calls are answered in a timely manner
  • Collective SSM: reduce costs for fuel, purchased power, and certain capital expenditures beyond the utility’s allowed revenue
  • Grid Services PIM: expedite the acquisition of grid service capabilities from DERs
  • Interconnection Approval PIM: improve customers’ experience by incenting faster interconnection times for DER systems
  • Low-and-Moderate Income (“LMI”) Energy Efficiency PIM: encourage customer engagement, equity, and affordability by delivering energy savings for LMI customers
  • Phase 1 Request for Proposal (“RFP”) SSM: provides shared savings for Phase 1 renewable energy projects that come online quickly and below a threshold price
  • Reliability PIMs: penalize poor performance on outage duration and frequency for generation, distribution, and transmission
  • Renewable Portfolio Standards (“RPS-A”) PIM: accelerate achievement of RPS goals by bringing online new renewable energy projects
  • Utility Scale Interconnection PIM: speed up and reduce costs for grid-scale interconnection

Scorecards and Reported Metrics

Hawaiian Electric provides performance data within the following 11 categories of scorecards and reported metrics:

  • Affordability: LMI energy burden, payment arrangements, and disconnections
  • Capital Formation: credit ratings and third-party generation
  • Cost Control: cost control for non-ARA components, rate base per customer, operations and maintenance cost per customer, and annual revenue growth
  • Customer Engagement: program participation, Green Button Connect My Data, Green Button Download My Data, Time-of-Use participation, and AMI opt-outs
  • Customer Equity: LMI program participation
  • DER Asset Effectiveness: DER grid services capability, DER grid services enrollment, DER grid services utilization, and DER curtailment
  • Electrification of Transportation: fleet electrification, measured electric vehicle (“EV”) load (energy and demand), estimated EV load, EV count, and ride sharing fueling hubs
  • Greenhouse Gas (“GHG”) Reduction: GHG emissions and GHG intensity
  • Grid Investment Efficiency: avoided transmission and distribution investment and non-wires alternatives total cost
  • Interconnection Experience: total DER interconnection time, truck roll response time, independent power producer interconnection, and interconnection cost overrun
  • Resilience: critical load, national incident management system certification, and emergency response training

Hawaiian Electric has also provided key performance metrics on eight areas pre-dating the PBR Framework: service reliability, power supply and generation, renewable energy, customer service, financial issues, safety, rates and revenues, and emerging technologies.

See Hawaiian Electric’s Performance Scorecards and Metrics for more information.

Review and Evaluation of PBR

Following the effective date of the PBR Framework in 2021, the Commission and parties engage in biannual reviews in the spring and fall of Hawaiian Electric’s performance and revenues. The spring review focuses on the annual pilot update, eligible PIM performance, and eligible Z-Factor relief. The fall review focuses on target revenue reconciliation, other revenue adjustments, eligible PIM performance, and eligible Z-Factor relief. Adjustments according to the ARA, as well as any awards or penalties for PIMs, are addressed at this time.

The Commission will also engage in a review process during the fourth year of the MRP to comprehensively evaluate the PBR Framework to determine the appropriate course of action following the initial five-year MRP.

See related Commission pages:

Updated 7/2024