![]() Hawaiian Electric has filed plans with the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (PUC) that seek to enhance Hawaii’s energy future by lowering electric bills, giving customers more service options and nearly tripling the amount of distributed solar, while achieving among the nation’s highest levels of renewable energy by 2030.” Although there has been a petition swirling around opposing the merger by a few different green energy advocate groups such as Blue Planet Foundation in fear that NextEra will block rooftop solar but with the new bill passed by legislation on May 5th, House Bill 623, Hawaii will have to go more green with more renewable sources, with or without this merger. “NextEra Energy shares Hawaiian Electric’s vision of increasing renewable energy, modernizing its grid, reducing Hawaii’s dependence on imported oil, integrating more rooftop solar energy and, importantly, lowering customer bills. ![]() NextEra has set high goals with this merger and their plans for Hawaii. NextEra has won a few different awards for their environmental and sustainability conscious, winning awards from various firms such as the EI Energy Intelligence, Dow Jones Sustainability Index and even TreeLine USA, which is sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation. This merger holds high expectations from HEI but also its customers. NextEra will not only be acquiring (HEI) but also its banking subsidiary, American Savings Bank. One of the most important speakers was Alan Oshima, President and CEO of Hawaiian Electric Industries (HEI) who spoke about the benefits of the upcoming merger of Hawaiian Electric and NextEra Energy, a leading company in clean energy based out of Florida. In March of 2015 Kahului held the Maui Energy Conference which hosted over 300 energy leaders from Hawaii, the mainland and even Japan. To produce energy from there then takes gas and Maui’s residents know that even when gas prices were falling, they are still paying more than $3 per gallon. ![]() Then homes with PV systems get the rest of their power where most Maui residents get all of their energy: Maui Electric Company’s power plant on North Kihei road in Ma’alaea Harbor. Even then, customers can only expect an average of 35% reduction of energy costs (not including what they paid for the installation itself). However, as of December, 2014 only 7,150 solar electric systems, also known as photovoltaic (PV) systems have been installed on homes and houses here on Maui and only 36,396 in all of the Hawaii Islands. ![]() Only about 30% of Maui’s energy comes from the renewable sources such as the winds farms, Kaheawa Wind and Auwahi Wind which power about 28,700 homes combined. So consumers are also wondering when MECO’s investment is going to roll over and start saving its consumers money. They also state that “It will take more investments in facilities to harness renewable resources and upgrade the electric grid.” Although they also state in their list that Maui Electric has already invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the current facilities we have which in turn has also raised costs for customers. So when gas prices are lowering to this much is there hope that Maui’s energy costs could be lowering as well? On Maui Electric’s (MECO) website they have a list as to why energy costs are so high in Hawaii the number reason stated being oil costs. Gas barrels fell below $50 per barrel for the first time since 2009 and customers were lucky to see price per gallon go as low as $1.76 in some places. ![]() At the beginning of 2015 drivers were ecstatic to see that gas prices were for once dropping and not rising. ![]()
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