Public Utilities Commission

This case contains Natural Hazard Mitigation Reports filed by public utilities (electric, gas, telecom, water, wastewater, and watercarriers), pursuant to Order No. 40396. These reports are to be updated every three years, or as soon as practicable following any natural hazard event that affects a utility’s operations. For more information, see the PUC’s Natural Hazard Mitigation Reports – Case No. 2023-04661.

On June 19, 2024, HECO filed an Application seeking approval to spend $497 million to install innovative technologies across Hawaii to detect broken/fallen conductors and to provide early fault detection. HECO is also proposing to expand its private LTE network. The Project is part of an IIJA Grid Resilience and Innovative Partnerships (“GRIP”) funding application in which the Hawaii State Energy Office (“HSEO”) is the prime applicant. The IIJA funding would contribute $238 million to the Project (or 48%), and HECO would provide $259 million (or 52%). The Project would be implemented over 8 years from 2025 to 2033. HECO requested that the PUC issue a decision between December 2024 and June 2025.

On August 6, 2024, HECO notified the PUC that they were not selected for the GRIP award, and on August 15, 2024, HECO withdrew their Application. The Commission closed the docket on August 21, 2024.

This docket includes requests to fund numerous initiatives related to wildfire prevention and mitigation: (1) Critical Transmission Line Hardening; (2) Critical Distribution Line Hardening; (3) Critical Pole Hardening; (4) Wildfire System Operation and Situational Awareness; (5) Substation Flood Monitoring; (6) Distribution Undergrounding; (7) Distribution Feeder Ties; (8) Hazard Tree Removal; and (9) Resilience Modeling. The Project is part of a IIJA GRIP funding application.

On January 31, 2024, the PUC approved HECO’s Application in Decision and Order No. 40566 and closed the docket.

On April 30, 2024, HECO filed their proposed plan for soliciting and documenting input from the Parties, Participants, Resilience Working Group, stakeholders, and community groups on (1) refining specific sub-projects (e.g., prioritizing specific initiatives, locations, critical customers); and (2) developing metrics or other criteria to evaluate the Project’s impact on the resiliency of the grid and otherwise evaluate the success of the Project.

On August 8, 2024, HECO informed the Commission that it has officially been awarded the $95 million IIJA grant.

This docket includes information requested by the PUC on HECO’s efforts to reduce customer outages from weather-related events, including wildfire.

This docket includes requests for technologies that could support wildfire prevention and mitigation.

This docket includes development of a resilience planning framework for HECO’s systems.

This docket requires ongoing reporting and tracking related to system reliability, resilience, and safety, found at: https://www.hawaiianelectric.com/about-us/performance-scorecards-and-metrics.

On April 1, 2024, HECO filed a request for a partial temporary suspension and modification of their respective Transmission and Distribution (“T&D”) System Average Interruption Duration Index (“SAIDI”) performance incentive mechanisms (“PIM”) and the T&D System Average Interruption Frequency Index (“SAIFI”) PIMs.

On April 26, 2024, the PUC established a procedural schedule regarding HECO’s request.

On September 22, 2023, in view of the Maui Wildfires, the PUC issued Order No. 40279, “Temporarily Suspending the Docket,” which involves the permanent overhead and underground relocation of a line through a residential area. The purpose of the temporary suspension is to allow time for HECO to reassess whether to revise its application, provide additional information to the Commission and the Consumer Advocate on resilience considerations for overhead lines, and better equip HECO and the Consumer Advocate to address concerns raised at a public hearing to promote meaningful and full public disclosure.

On February 16, 2024, the PUC filed Order No. 40611 approving HECO’s motion to reopen the Docket.