Low fuel prices continue to have a ripple effect on Hawaiian Electric Co.’s electrical bills as customers are set to see nearly a $2 discount in February from January’s electrical bill.
The bill for a typical household using 500 kilowatt-hours on Oahu will be $127.47 this month, $1.87 less than what customers paid in January. The price per kilowatt-hour on Oahu decreased to
23.4 cents this month from 23.8 cents in January. The February price is the lowest in more than six years, HECO spokesman Darren Pai said Monday.
Oahu residents’ electrical bills are nearly 15 percent lower than they were last February.
Connie Lau, president and CEO of Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc., HECO’s parent company, said in the company’s earnings report Thursday that 2015 residential bills were 18 percent lower than 2014 due to fuel prices.
For the full year in 2015, fuel costs for HEI were
42 percent less than the year before as HEI paid $654.6 million for fuel compared with $1.1 billion in 2014, according to HEI’s earnings. HEI was paying on average $74.71 a barrel in 2015, down from $129.65 a barrel in 2014.
Despite the falling costs, Hawaii still has the highest electrical rates in the nation due in part to the state’s dependence on imported oil for most of its power.
Hawaii’s price of electricity is more than double the national average, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Hawaii’s residents paid an average of 27.16 cents a kilowatt-hour in November, while the national average was 12.73 cents in the same month.
In 2014 oil made up roughly 71.3 percent of the energy mix of HECO and its subsidiaries. HECO imports oil mainly from Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Other states use natural gas, hydroelectric power, coal or nuclear power, which keep costs low.
HECO has begun to purchase more from other resources. Currently,
22 percent of the electricity needs of HECO’s customers are coming from renewable energy, such as wind farms and solar. With its use of renewable energy, the company said it avoided having to purchase an additional
1.9 million barrels of oil, which would have cost more than $140 million in 2015.
Most of Oahu’s neighbor islands, except Hawaii island, saw bills shrink in February.
The residential rate for Hawaii Electric Light Co. customers on the Big Island was in line with the 29.8 cents a kilowatt-hour residents paid in January, when the average bill was $160.63. The February bill for a household using 500 kilowatt-hours of electricity is $160.87.
Maui Electric Co. customers will see a slight decrease in rates to
24.6 cents per kilowatt-hour from 26.3 cents in January. A household using 500 kilowatt-hours will pay $132.58, down from $141.54 last month.
The Kauai Island Utility Cooperative dropped its rate to 29.3 cents a kilowatt-hour in February from 30.6 cents a kilowatt-hour in January. The bill for a household using 500 kilowatt-hours of electricity, including a $10.58 customer base charge, is $157.08, down from $163.58.
Average monthly usage varies by island. The typical bill of 500 kilowatt-hours is used to make comparisons. Monthly bills include the cost according to the kilowatt-hours used plus other charges.
The typical customer bill on Lanai and Molokai is measured with electrical use at 400 kilowatt-hours due to lower energy use, HECO said.
Maui Electric Co. customers on Molokai using 400 kilowatt-hours of electricity will pay an average of $128.13 with effective rates of 29.6 cents per kilowatt-hour, down from 30.9 cents per kilowatt-hour in December, when the typical bill was $133.44. Customers on Lanai using 400 kilowatt-hours of electricity will pay 30.2 cents per kilowatt-hour, down from
31.5 cents per kilowatt-hour in January. Lanai residents will pay $130.51 in February, compared with $135.62 last month.
