Hawaiian Electric (HECO) submitted its 2025-2027 Wildfire Safety Strategy (WSS) to the Public Utilities Commission this week, outlining its intention to protect the electric grid from being damaged or causing damage during wildfires, hurricanes, tsunami and flooding, and recognizing the growing threats that are exacerbated by climate change.

The WSS has five overarching targets, including engaging with community members to inform and coordinate preventive actions and responses. Without question, maximizing communication and clarity under dangerous, rapidly changing circumstances is one of the most important steps all stakeholders must take to save lives in the face of disaster, and it’s crucial to see this acknowledged in the strategy.

Also foundational is HECO’s “four-pillar” approach to wildfire safety:

>> Harden and redesign the grid by upgrading infrastructure, including undergrounding lines.

>> Improve “situational awareness” by using human “spotters” and technology to catch problems in real time.

>> Improve operations with practices such as its Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) program, which keeps live transmission lines from sparking fire under risky conditions, and Enhanced Fast Trip (EFT), which automatically shuts off power when a line is disturbed.

>> Strengthen community partnerships. In strategic terms, this requires tangible action to keep stakeholders, including the public, informed, and requires that HECO diligently work to maximize communication.

Risk modeling, along with identifying high-risk areas, is also a target. HECO is developing Wildfire Risk Maps and data-modeling techniques that promise to be of critical value in the effort.

The WSS plan was prompted by the August 2023 wildfire that devastated Lahaina, which started when downed HECO power lines were reenergized, igniting an excess of dry, overgrown vegetation near Lahainaluna Road. The fiery destruction brought devastating realization that HECO, local and state government leaders, landowners and islanders all had paid too little attention to safety precautions — and were caught unprepared for a threat of such magnitude. In the fire’s wake, public and private interests have pledged cooperation to prevent another such tragedy. HECO’s part is essential, and the utility acknowledges this — leading to this proposed $450 million WSS plan.

As it should, HECO is targeting continuous improvement, enabled by tracking key metrics and data. If implemented diligently, this should help avoid falling into complacency or ignoring warning signs in the future.

Finally, HECO explicitly targets accurate estimations of costs, and the coordination of costs and schedules. This information must be carefully monitored by all stakeholders, as it affects the speed with which HECO can act, a matter in which all residents share a stake.

HECO has already moved with relative speed, spending about $120 million last year on wildfire safety improvements, including PSPS and EFT. It also has tested and replaced utility poles, upgraded overhead power lines, cleared vegetation and installed 53 weather stations and 44 AI-assisted cameras to monitor for fire and risk of fire. Those actions, part of the WSS plan, are estimated to have reduced wildfire risk from HECO equipment by about 60%.

There will undoubtedly be debate over costs and spending strategies in the coming months, and with a settlement for pending lawsuits over the Maui fires yet to be settled, much uncertainty remains. However, the WSS provides a framework for assessing HECO’s proposed actions and spending in coming years that will help ratepayers and lawmakers alike.

Wildfire protections and Lahaina recovery efforts are among the state’s most pressing problems this year, aligned as they are with Hawaii’s housing shortage, economic stability and climate change. All are intertwined. And each advance made by HECO to decrease fire risk or extended power outages triggered by drought, wind or flood will improve safety and enable needed forward movement on these issues.