Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (HEI; ) is the largest supplier of electricity in the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

, supplying power to 95% of Hawaii's population through its electric utilities: Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc., Hawai'i Electric Light Company, Inc. and Maui Electric Company, Limited. In addition, HEI owns a financial institution serving Hawaii,

American Savings Bank American Savings Bank is Hawaii's third-largest financial institution, with assets of $6.7 billion. A subsidiary of Hawaiian Electric Industries (NYSE: HE), it is headed by Chairman Constance Lau. American Savings Bank dates back to Septemb ...

, and a clean energy and sustainability company, Pacific Current LLC. HECO, HELCO, and MECO employ more than 2,000 people. Approximately 20,000 Hawaii residents are shareholders of HECO’s parent company, Hawaiian Electric Industries. The company is headquartered in

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

. Net income was $219 million on sales of $2.874B for 2019. The island of

Kauai Kauai, () anglicized as Kauai ( ), is geologically the second-oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands (after Niʻihau). With an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), it is the fourth-largest of these islands and the 21st largest island ...

is the only Hawaiian island not supplied by HEI. Instead, the consumer-owned

Kauai Island Utility Cooperative Kauai, () anglicized as Kauai ( ), is geologically the second-oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands (after Niʻihau). With an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), it is the fourth-largest of these islands and the 21st largest island ...

manages that island's electricity.

History

Hawaiian Electric Company (often abbreviated HECO, pronounced HEE-coh) incorporated on October 13, 1891. Within about 16 years the utility had 2,500 customers on

Oahu Oahu () (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering place#Island of Oʻahu as The Gathering Place, Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over t ...

. By 1914 HECO had started rural service to the windward side of the island and was marketing electric products like refrigerators and flat irons. In 1937 HECO broke ground on its second power plant, and

transmission lines In electrical engineering, a transmission line is a specialized cable or other structure designed to conduct electromagnetic waves in a contained manner. The term applies when the conductors are long enough that the wave nature of the transmis ...

soon crisscrossed Oahu.

War and statehood

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

HECO power plants linked to military bases, generating more than one million kilowatt hours of electricity each day. (= > 42 MW average power) Hawaii became a state in 1959, and by then Oahu was entirely electrified. HECO opened a 116 MW plant in downtown

in 1954. The state's first reheat

steam turbine A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...

generator went on line at Kahe on the west coast of Oahu. Today, Kahe is the state's largest plant with a total generating capacity of 650 MW.

Island expansion

HECO purchased Maui Electric Company (abbreviated MECO and pronounced MEE-coh) in 1968. In 1970, HECO acquired the

Hawaii Island Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii ) is the largest island in the United States, located in the state of Hawaii. It is the southeasternmost of the Hawaiian Islands, a chain of volcanic islands in the North Pacific Ocean. With an area of , it has 63% of t ...

's Hilo Electric Light Company (later renamed Hawai'i Electric Light Company, abbreviated HELCO and pronounced HEL-coh). In 1988 MECO acquired the

Lanai City Lāna‘i City is a census-designated place (CDP) on the island of Lāna‘i, in Maui County, Hawai‘i, United States. The population was 3,332 at the 2020 census. Lāna‘i City is the island's commercial center. Many of the island's restau ...

power plant on the island of

Lana'i Lanai ( haw, Lānai, , , also ,) is the sixth-largest of the Hawaiian Islands and the smallest publicly accessible inhabited island in the chain. It is colloquially known as the Pineapple Island because of its past as an island-wide pineapple p ...

, and in 1989, Molokai Electric Company on the island of

Moloka'i Molokai , or Molokai (), is the fifth most populated of the eight major islands that make up the Hawaiian Islands archipelago in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It is 38 by 10 miles (61 by 16 km) at its greatest length and width with a us ...

. Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (HEI) was created as a holding company for these various utilities in 1983. In 2013, HECO began working with

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...

to develop a self-healing grid in eastern Oahu and

Waikiki Waikiki (; haw, Waikīkī; ; also known as Waikiki Beach) is a neighborhood of Honolulu on the south shore of the island of Oahu in the U.S. state of Hawaii. Waikiki is most famous for Waikiki Beach, which is one of six beaches in the district ...

to ensure a reliable electrical supply. On December 4, 2014,

NextEra Energy NextEra Energy, Inc. is an American energy company with about 58 GW of generating capacity (24 GW of which were from fossil fuel sources), revenues of over $18 billion in 2020, and about 14,900 employees throughout the US and Canada. It is the ...

tendered an offer to purchase HEI for $4.3 billion. The sale required approval by the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission. On July 18, 2016, it was announced that the merger was cancelled after the Public Utilities Commission disapproved the deal. The merger included plans to convert HEI's

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

-fired generating plants to run on

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

, which were to use

liquified natural gas Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volu ...

imported from a

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

plant of

FortisBC FortisBC is a Canadian owned, British Columbia based regulated utility focused on providing safe and reliable energy, including natural gas, Renewable Natural Gas, electricity and propane. FortisBC has approximately 2,600 employees serving more th ...

. The upgrades were cancelled as they were dependent upon approval of the merger. On December 24, 2019, HECO announced that it would begin operating under a single name with its subsidiaries MECO and HELCO—Hawaiian Electric.

Generation

In 2016 HECO produced 8.8 TWh, of which 2.3 TWh were renewable. Most of the power came from oil, using 8.5 million barrels in 2016, down from 10.7 million barrels in 2008. Hawaiian Electric supports the adoption of electric vehicles. The company's goal is to have the majority of vehicles in Hawaii be electric vehicles by 2045. As of November 2018, EVs were 1% of all vehicles. Hawaiian Electric filed a road map with the state.

Oahu

Oil-fired generators at Hawaiian Electric Kahe Power Plant in Kapolei on the Waianae Coast

HEI's total firm generating capability in 2020 was 1,794.5 mega

watts Watts is plural for ''watt'', the unit of power. Watts may also refer to: People *Watts (surname), list of people with the surname Watts Fictional characters *Watts, main character in the film '' Some Kind of Wonderful'' *Watts family, six chara ...

serving 304,261 customers. Non-firm capacity was 777.8 megawatts. 25.2% comes from renewable resources.

Maui/Lanai/Molokai

Total firm generating capability in 2020 was 274.1 megawatts serving 72,522 customers. Non-firm capacity was 192.1 mw. 40.8% came from renewable resources.

Hawaii

Total firm generating capability 213.4 megawatts serving 86,576 customers. Non-firm capacity was 147.6 mw. 34.7% came from renewable resources.

Electric vehicles

Through a cooperative effort with HECO, High Technology Development Corporation (HTDC), an agency of the State of Hawai’i, initiated the Hawai’i Electric Vehicle Demonstration Project (HEVDP) consortium to develop an

electric vehicle An electric vehicle (EV) is a vehicle that uses one or more electric motors for propulsion. It can be powered by a collector system, with electricity from extravehicular sources, or it can be powered autonomously by a battery (sometimes cha ...

industry in Hawai’i. The islands had about 5,000 rechargeable vehicles as of 2017.

Plans

In 2015, the Hawaii State Legislature amended the State's Renewable Portfolio Standards to establish the nation's first goal of

100% renewable energy 100% renewable energy means getting all energy from renewable resources. The endeavor to use 100% renewable energy for electricity, heating, cooling and transport is motivated by climate change, pollution and other environmental issues, ...

: Hawaiian Electric has indicated in its Power Supply Improvement Plan that it will achieve these goals ahead of schedule. From 2021, HEI transitioned away from cost of service to Performance Based Regulation.

References

External links

Official Page of HEI

Profile from Hoover's

Profile from Platts
{{Authority control Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Electric power companies of the United States Companies based in Honolulu 1891 establishments in Hawaii Energy companies established in 1891 Business in Hawaii