NextEra Energy Inc. and Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. don’t want to share secrets with any organizations that may be considering an alternative to the planned $4.3 billion sale of HEI to NextEra.
NextEra, which said in December it plans to buy HEI, is waiting for approval from the state Public Utilities Commission. As part of that process, NextEra and HEI must share information about the sale with 29 intervenors approved by the PUC.
In a filing with the state on Wednesday, NextEra and HECO asked 12 of the 29 intervenors to reveal whether they are involved with initiatives that are exploring alternatives to the sale of Hawaii’s largest electric utility to the Florida company.
NextEra and HECO said if any of the intervenors were involved with entities competing with the sale, they will be banned from "restricted information."
"This restricted information will be only authorized to those parties for which applicants have reasonable assurance that they are not engaged in and do not plan to engage in a competing acquisition of HEI or of a controlling interest in one or more of the Hawaiian Electric companies," NextEra and HECO said."Applicants have and will be designating various due diligence, projections and other commercially sensitive and competitive information as ‘restricted information.’"
The companies are looking to protect sensitive information that will be shared as part of the discovery process of the sale’s regulatory review, NextEra and HECO said.
"The applicants seek to protect their competitively sensitive information developed to assess and implement the transaction from use by competitors," the companies said.
NextEra and HECO highlighted the organization Keep our Utilities Locally Owned and Locally Operated in the filing. The organization includes two PUC-approved intervenors — the Sierra Club and The Alliance for Solar Choice. KULOLO has drawn up a petition that asks the governor to conduct a study to see what the best utility model is for the state.
Robert Harris, spokesman for the solar alliance, said KULOLO is not trying to compete with NextEra.
"It’s laughable," Harris said. "KULOLO was created to raise public awareness about a public acquisition of HECO. It’s not designed to buy HECO."
NextEra and HECO have also questioned the intentions of the following intervenors: AES Hawaii Inc., The Gas Co., The Hawaii PV Coalition, Hawaii Renewable Energy Alliance, Hina Power Corp., Kauai Island Utility Cooperative, Paniolo Power Co., Renewable Energy Action Coalition of Hawaii Inc., SunEdison and SunPower Corp.
The intervenors have 10 business days to respond to the filing from NextEra and HEI challenging the right of the intervenors to pose information requests.
"This is all part of the discovery process," said Rob Gould, NextEra spokesman. "The information requests are part of that process and there will eventually be others in the future."
The discovery process is scheduled to continue through Sept. 30, unless otherwise ordered by the PUC.
The PUC has to make a decision whether the information requests filed by the applicants will be allowed in the review process. In an order establishing the schedule of the discovery period, the PUC denied intervenors the ability to ask each other questions.
When the 29 groups filed to be part of the PUC review of the sale, HEI and NextEra opposed giving intervenor status to all of the groups except the state Energy Department, the state Office of Planning, and Hawaii and Maui counties.
