Dive Brief:
- Beginning with December bills, customers of Hawaiian Electric, Maui Electric, and Hawaii Electric Light will see a new line item charge on their bills to fund Hawaii's Green Energy Market Securitization (GEMS) program.
- HECO estimates that a typical residential customer using 600 kWh a month will pay an additional $1.29 for the new green infrastructure fee.
- But because of a reduction in the monthly Public Benefits Fund surcharge, collected to pay for the state's conservation and energy efficiency programs, most customers will likely see little net change on their electric bills.
Dive Insight:
The new fee will enable Hawaii to borrow $150 million for its GEMS program, which will initially be administered by the state's Department of Business, Economic Development. HECO said the program will make low-cost loans "so green infrastructure improvements are more affordable and accessible for customers who cannot afford upfront costs or cannot qualify for other financing."
But Pacific Business News reports that for larger users of power, the offseting reduction will not be enough to cover the higher infrastructure fee, and the gap will grow as usage increases.
The GEMS program will initially focus on clean energy investments so customers can take advantage of green initiatives such as photovoltaic systems, energy storage, advanced inverters and energy monitoring devices.
