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The Maui News

Typical residential electric bills on all five islands served by Hawaiian Electric are now lower than a year ago, with Lanai seeing the biggest bill decrease among the islands, the company said Wednesday.

Bills are now getting closer to the level they were before the Russian invasion of Ukraine spiked oil prices and elevated electric rates starting in the spring of 2022. Most of the reduction in electric bills can be attributed to prices stabilizing and declining in global oil markets in recent months, Hawaiian Electric said. Typical bill prices this year and last year are as follows:

* Lanai (400 kilowatt-hours): $226.35 in May 2022, $195.65 in May 2023.

* Maui (500 kWh): $223.53 in May 2022, $210.60 in May 2023.

* Molokai (400 kWh): $205.10 in May 2022, $198.42 in May 2023.

* Hawaii island (500 kWh): $241.26 in May 2022, $221.83 in May 2023.

* Oahu (500 kWh): $208.73 in May 2022, $202.19 in May 2023.

While Oahu bills in May are $6.54 lower than May 2022, they are still about 9 percent higher than before the oil price surge, with some of the increase due to the discontinuation of burning lower-cost coal for power generation last year, Hawaiian Electric said.

The state Public Utilities Commission regulates the formula for rates, which include fuel costs that fluctuate with world markets. Hawaiian Electric said it makes no profit on the fuels used to generate electricity. Under a fuel-cost risk-sharing regulatory mechanism, the company’s shareholders may be required to pay some of the cost when oil prices surge, resulting in a slightly lower rate for customers.

By the end of the decade, Hawaiian Electric expects the level of renewable resources on its grids to reach at least 70 percent, which the company says would better insulate customers from oil price volatility.

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