Alan Oshima became chief executive officer of Hawaiian Electric Co. on Oct. 1.
What is he getting into?
These are rough times for HECO, beset by a public and a state Public Utilities Commission and Legislature that have been criticizing it on various issues.
Hawaiian Electric Cos. serve 95 percent of Hawaii. The Oahu, Maui and Hawaii island companies employ 2,800 people, and more than 25,000 local residents are shareholders of the parent company, Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc.
For 100 years HECO has been Hawaii’s utility, run by engineers dedicated to keeping the lights on. It built the state through two world wars and from statehood, lighting us into the 21st century.
Sure, we had talked about oil and renewables for years, but the Clean Energy Agreement of 2008 ushered in a new era. HECO was a signatory, joining in the call for an energy transformation.
That transformation has not been easy. We found that we liked clean energy but that we liked cheap energy more. The choices we’ve dealt with have been complex and sometimes polarizing.
Although we’re still largely dependent on oil, we’ve installed huge amounts of photovoltaic and spawned a new PV industry. When HECO balked at unrestrained interconnection, there was fierce opposition.
Your work is cut out for you, Alan.
Alan was educated at Farrington High School, Northwestern University and the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law. After the Navy he practiced law with the Carlsmith law firm in Honolulu and founded Oshima Chun Fong & Chung in 1985.
In 2005 he became vice president and general counsel of Hawaiian Telcom. He was later made an adviser and director there and helped it emerge from bankruptcy in 2010.
He joined the HECO board in 2008. He took over corporate and community advancement for HECO’s parent, HEI, in 2011. In May he took on HECO’s public affairs.
Does Alan have what it takes to run HECO? He’s 67 years old, relatable, articulate and a good communicator. He’s smart and savvy on Hawaii business and knows the players on Bishop Street.
HECO became unpopular after the failure of the Integrated Resource Planning process, increasing electrical rates driven up by oil prices, and public pushback to HECO’s limits on PV interconnection, so much so that there are calls for regulatory restructuring.
These fences need to be mended.
While technology gives us smart grid, demand-response and storage technology, it also gives us microgrids and nanogrids that will reduce HECO’s revenues and require it to maintain the grid with fewer customers. This will be another challenge.
Upon the PUC’s orders, HECO has filed reports with plans and road maps relating to generation, interconnection, power supply, smart grid, information systems and decoupling. It’s anyone’s guess when they will be approved.
We are at a difficult crossroads.
The utility in transformation must find a way to cut expenses and rates, avoid delays on project approvals and offer its own new products and services. The old models won’t work anymore.
To get a handle on the future, we interviewed Alan the day he took office. Here are some of the things he said:
» One of the challenges we have is that technology moves so fast we can’t wait for the right answer. We have to come up with the best answer given what we have, and put it in the context of what’s best for Hawaii, our customers, our employees and our company. My job is to get us there.
» We have to give people more choices. As we move to smart grid, more two-way communication and other energy technology where people can have choices on how they use and save energy, they’ll start seeing the value proposition.
» It’s a matter of rebuilding things with the PUC, our public, our customers and our policymakers. We have to become better at communicating what we’re doing, why we’re doing it and showing how aligned we are. We’re going to work hard at that.
» Our plan is to get the entire company aligned on our transformation in a culture that senses the urgency, that is aligned toward our goals and even repurposes our people to come to a better fit on the new products and services we want to offer.
Changes in public opinion can take a while, but all indications are that Alan is the kind of guy we can collaborate with, and that working with him will have obvious benefits for the transformation.
Sure, we can criticize everything the utility does, but that doesn’t sound like a good idea. We do want the utility to succeed, and at this point we also want Alan Oshima to succeed.
How about giving Alan a nice honeymoon? Let’s work with him and help him realize his vision.
Welcome aboard, Alan.
Jay Fidell, a longtime business lawyer, founded ThinkTech Hawaii, a digital media company that reports on Hawaii’s tech and energy sectors of the economy. Reach him at fidell@lava.net.
