Record profits at Hawaiian Electric while Hawaiʻi’s families continue to struggle through pandemic

Sierra Club doubles down on its call to implement bill forgiveness

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Marti Townsend, Director
Telephone: 808-372-1314
Email: marti.townsend@sierraclub.org

HONOLULU, HAWAI‘I (February 26, 2021) – Hawaiian Electric is celebrating record profits in 2020, despite a global pandemic and economic meltdown that has thousands of Hawaiʻi’s families struggling to make ends meet. The Sierra Club says the record profits just further justify forgiving the utility bills of those customers still in dire straits. 

“It is outrageous that Hawaiian Electric is pocketing some of its highest profits ever during a year like 2020,” said Marti Townsend, Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi Director. “This just goes to show that Hawaiian Electric does not need to collect the unpaid bills from families that can hardly get by. Electricity is an essential service that Hawaiian Electric provides. Clearly they are in a position to do more to meet the needs of its customers, Hawaiʻi’s people.”

Hawaiian Electric Company reported a net income of $169.3 million in 2020, a 4.5% increase from 2019. This profit increase comes even with thousands of unpaid bills from its customers that have accrued during the Public Utilities Commission’s mandated utility shutoff moratorium that has been in place since April 2020.

Hawaiian Electric can see its customers are in dire need and has made some contributions to charitable relief efforts. Most notably, the corporation donated $2 million in shareholder earnings to a utility payment assistance program in partnership with Aloha United Way earlier this month. This program was in such high demand that the applications closed within three days of the program’s launch—demonstrating a much greater need than this charitable program offered. The utility also donated several million dollars to various COVID-19 relief programs over the last year.

Payment plans are available to Hawaiian Electric customers with overdue bills from COVID-19. While these plans are standard for payment assistance programs, many may be inaccessible for Hawaiʻi’s households, as our islands have yet to see a meaningful economic recovery from the pandemic and upwards of 60,000 residents remain unemployed. Most of Hawaiian Electric’s payment plans require on-time and in-full payments of current bills, in addition to installments of past bills—requirements that are simply unattainable given the current conditions we are living in. Deferment plans are also available, but these only serve to increase customer debt over time.

“Hawaiian Electric has tried everything except offering actual bill forgiveness,” said Townsend. “It is more clear than ever that the only way to offer relief on the scale that is needed, is for HECO to use its own earnings to directly forgive the utility bills of households that can demonstrate loss of income due to COVID-19.” 

The current extension of the Public Utilities Commission’s utility shutoff moratorium runs through March 31, 2021. The Commission has not made an announcement as to whether or not it will issue a further extension. With CARES Act and other government funded payment assistance programs coming to a close, Hawaiʻi’s residents may be facing even more difficult financial decisions and possible utility shutoffs in the coming months. Hawaiian Electric and other utilities are currently urging its customers to apply for payment plans and take measures to prepare to pay back any unpaid bills resulting from the pandemic.

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