Hawaiian Electric to launch year-long study of time-of-use rates on Oahu, Hawaii Island

A total of 16,000 randomly selected customers on Oahu and Hawaii Island will test new time-of-use (TOU) rates beginning in February 2024, as part of Hawaiian Electric’s Shift and Save pilot program.

That program will run for a year, and recently added 4,000 households and businesses to its total. All participants will be notified by email or postal mail by Dec. 5, 2023. New residential TOU rates for Oahu pilot participants will be set at 17 cents per kW hour from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., 52 centers per kWh from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and 35 centers per kWh for the rest of the night. On Hawaii Island, participants’ rates will be 21 cents per kWh for the day, 62 centers per kWh for the evening and 41 cents per kWh overnight, respectively.

All will be part of Hawaiian Electric’s attempts to shift electricity use among its customer base from evening and overnight periods to daytime periods. This is due to the nature of fuel used during each time. While at night, the company turns to expensive fossil fuels, in the daytime it can utilize the less expensive solar energy. As such, Hawaiian Electric has pitched the plan as one to not only reduce bills, but cut greenhouse gas emissions along the way.

Originally, the plan was supposed to go into effect at the beginning of October, but the Public Utilities Commission ordered a delay and to suspend the study temporarily for Maui following its devastating August wildfires. Maui, Lanai and Molokai may still voluntarily enroll in the new rates, but they will not be mandated to them. Further, customers selected for the pilot can choose not to participate.

Overall, data and feedback pulled from the pilot will supply both Hawaiian Electric and the commission with ideas for how – and whether – to apply the program to all customers in the future.