JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
The Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) facility in Honolulu.
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Hawaiian Electric Co. is asking the state Public Utilities Commission for slightly more than the 2.5 percent base-rate increase that was approved Dec. 15.
HECO, which filed the rate case in December 2016, initially had sought a 6.9 percent increase and then lowered that amount to
3.5 percent after reaching a settlement with the state consumer advocate. Those rate increases would have generated an additional
$106 million and $53.7 million, respectively.
HECO filed a motion Friday asking the PUC to reconsider its decision that “significantly reduced the amount of pension expenses that could be recovered in utility rates,” the company said in a news release Tuesday.
The 2.5 percent rate increase approved by the PUC would add about $38 million to HECO’s revenue. HECO, without specifying the percentage increase being sought, said it is seeking an additional $6 million for a total of about $44 million. HECO said it would use the added $6 million to pay pension expenses.
“We’ve read the interim decision (with the 2.5 percent increase) very closely and firmly believe that reconsideration should be granted immediately to avoid a bad, and possibly unintended, financial consequence,” said Tayne Sekimura, chief financial officer of Hawaiian Electric, in the news release.
“After the Dec. 15 decision was filed, Hawaiian Electric immediately told its employees that their pensions will not be affected by the decision. The company made the required plan contributions with the explicitly stated expectation that the expense would be recovered later through previously approved mechanisms,” the news release said.
HECO last filed a rate case in 2014 in accordance with the PUC’s mandatory three-year cycle but did not seek an increase at that time.
The last rate case that HECO filed seeking an increase was in May 2010. HECO asked for a 6.6 percent increase at that time. The PUC ended up approving a 3.4 percent increase in September 2012. That resulted in a revenue increase of $58.1 million.
