Public Utilities Commission

All public utilities are required to file Natural Hazard Mitigation Reports pursuant to Order No. 40396. These reports contain utility plans for emergency preparedness and resilience investments and must be updated every three years, or as soon as practicable following any natural hazard event affecting a utility’s operations.

• Hawaiian Electric, filed August 21, 2024
• Kauai Island Utility Cooperative, Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4, filed August 21, 2024
• Hawaii Gas, filed August 21, 2024
• Hawaiian Telcom, filed August 21, 2024
• Young Brothers, filed August 21, 2024

On June 30, 2022, the Hawaiian Electric Companies filed a request to commit funds of $189,727,000 for a Climate Adaptation Transmission and Distribution Resilience Program and to recover the Project costs through the Exceptional Project Recovery Mechanism. The Companies noted that they were seeking federal funding in parallel to significantly offset costs for customers.

On January 31, 2024, the PUC issued Decision and Order No. 40566 approving the Companies’ request and closing the docket.

On August 7, 2024, the U.S. Department of Energy officially notified and awarded the $95 million Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act grant to the Hawaiian Electric Companies.

On September 13, 2024, the Commission issued Order No. 41033 Providing Guidelines Regarding Hawaiian Electric’s Wildfire Safety Strategy. Hawaiian Electric filed its Wildfire Safety Strategy (also known as “Wildfire Mitigation Plan” or “WMP”) on January 10, 2025, in Non-Docketed Case No. 2023-04661.

On January 30, 2025, the Commission issued Order No. 41531 initiating the proceeding in Docket No. 2025-0156 and finding that a formal investigation was necessary to evaluate the alignment of Hawaiian Electric’s 2025-2027 WMP with the Commission’s guidelines and regulatory requirements. The Commission approved the 2025-2027 WMP with conditions on December 31, 2025 in Decision and Order No. 42228.

Hawaiian Electric filed its 2026-2027 WMP Update on April 13, 2026.

For more information, please visit the Wildfire Mitigation Plans page.

On May 30, 2025, the Hawaiian Electric Companies filed a request for approval to recover costs of approximately $350 million for its 2025-2027 WMP. This total includes $270.4 million in capital costs, $79.9 million in operating expenses, and $3.9 million annual starting in 2028 to cover permanent staffing and operation of its new Watch Office.

For more information, please visit the Wildfire Mitigation Plans page.

On October 21, 2025, the Hawaiian Electric Companies filed a request to establish a two-year Backup Power Rebate Program that will provide financial assistance to purchase backup generation resources for (1) low-to-moderate income residential customers in areas at risk of Public Safety Power Shutoffs (“PSPS”); and (2) commercial customers, with prioritization given to those that are or have potential to serve as, or provide support for, resilience hubs within PSPS areas. The proposed rebates for eligible purchases, including portable generators and portable power stations, range from $500 to $1,000 for residential customers and $400 per kilowatt (“kW”) for commercial generators or batteries. The program is proposed to be available for all islands and up to 4,800 residential customers. The proposed annual budget is capped at $3 million, with cost recovery sought through the demand-side management surcharge.

On October 1, 2024, the Commission issued Order No. 41075 Providing Guidelines Regarding KIUC’s WMP. KIUC filed its WMP on January 28, 2025, in Non-Docketed Case No. 2023-04661. On May 21, 2025, the Commission issued Order No. 41716 initiating the proceeding in Docket No. 2025-0255.

For more information, please visit the Wildfire Mitigation Plans page.

On September 30, 2019, Hawaiian Electric filed a request for approval of the Grid Modernization Phase 2 project. The project focuses on the integration of an Advanced Distribution Management System, smart field devices, and cybersecurity monitoring to provide grid operators with a holistic solution for visualizing and controlling distribution network conditions. These technologies enhance reliability and resilience by enabling faster fault response and prioritizing wildfire safety through automated mitigation measures and circuit segmentation in high-risk areas.

In 2018, the PUC opened the Integrated Grid Planning (“IGP”) Docket to replace earlier grid planning efforts, namely Hawaiian Electric’s Integrated Resource Planning (1990-2014) and Power Supply Improvement Planning (2014-2017). The IGP process includes the PUC, Hawaiian Electric, intervenors, and a broad range of stakeholders working together to determine the grid’s needs and to plan how to meet them, particularly for the State’s renewable energy transition. The results of IGP will determine the future of Hawaiian Electric’s grid—what types of generation are needed and where, how and at what pace we’ll reach 100% renewable energy generation, and how to keep the lights on during extreme events.

On March 7, 2024, the PUC issued Decision & Order No. 40651 accepting the 2023 Final IGP Report and directing Hawaiian Electric to file the Final Report from its next round of IGP within five years, and to file annual updates on the Action Plan from the first IGP cycle.

On January 2, 2026, the PUC issued Order No. 42230 opening the second cycle of IGP and directing Hawaiian Electric to file the IGP Second Cycle Workplan. On March 6, 2026, Hawaiian Electric filed its IGP Second Cycle Workplan and the initial inputs-and-assumptions for the PUC and stakeholder review.

Pursuant to Hawaii Revised Statutes §269-142, the Commission has contracted the services of a Hawaii Electricity Reliability Administrator (“HERA”) to support the Commission’s adoption of strong formalized reliability standards and interconnection requirements.

The first task of the contracted HERA will be to lead a working group to recommend a short list of generation resource adequacy methodologies with corresponding targets. Following this, the HERA will lead the same working group to develop a short list of reliability standards for the electric utilities. Lastly the HERA will review the utility scale generator interconnection process and costs and make recommendations.

The HERA working group on resource adequacy and reliability standards held its first meeting on November 18, 2025. This working group includes the HERA consultants, PUC staff, the Hawaiian Electric Companies, Kauai Island Utility Cooperative, the Consumer Advocate, Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, Hawaii State Energy Office, US Army, Life of the Land, and technical consultants from the Electric Power Research Institute, Energy and Environmental Economics, Inc., and Telos Energy.

On April 1, 2024, Hawaiian Electric filed a request to temporarily suspend the Transmission and Distribution (“T&D”) reliability performance incentive mechanisms (“PIM”) until December 31, 2025 for circuits identified as having an elevated wildfire risk and Protective Measures in place in or planned as of 2023 and 2024. On December 18, 2024, the PUC issued Order No. 41256 approving the Companies’ request, as clarified by Order No. 41478 filed in this proceeding on April 1, 2024.

On December 16, 2025, the Companies filed a request to expand the suspension of reliability PIMs to apply to all circuits through December 31, 2026. On April 21, 2026, the Commission issued Order No. 42489 denying the Companies’ request and extending the original suspension through December 31, 2026.

Hawaiian Electric performance scorecards and metrics related to system reliability, resilience, and safety can be found at: https://www.hawaiianelectric.com/about-us/performance-scorecards-and-metrics.