Hawaiian Electric today assured customers it will pay any upfront incentives owed by Swell Energy Inc., a now-shuttered company that operated the Home Rewards Battery Program.

Swell Energy was a third-party provider that Hawaiian Electric contracted in 2021 to aggregate home battery systems to create a “virtual power plant” to support the utility’s grid.

Swell enrolled Hawaiian Electric customers with battery storage systems into the Home Battery Rewards Program, and paid customer incentives in the form of both an upfront payment and monthly bill credits.

In all, there are about 1,200 such customers enrolled in the program on Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii island.

Hawaiian Electric said it has sent letters to program participants, informing them it would pay any upfront incentives owed by Swell, but only to eligible Home Rewards Battery Program customers who qualify under the terms of their contract.

Hawaiian Electric did not say what the sum of these incentives owed to customers would be.

Starting in October, Hawaiian Electric said it would pause monthly credits and work with customers to unenroll their systems from the program.

Swell Energy was part of Hawaiian Electric’s Power Partnership Program, which aimed to to incentivize customers to allow the utility to tap into their systems when needed.

With Swell’s closure, however, the utility is no longer able to receive these grid services from customer batteries.

“This situation is unprecedented and we appreciate customers’ patience and understanding as we work toward a positive resolution,” said Yoh Kawanami, Hawaiian Electric customer energy resources co-director, in a news release.