Oʻahu land use: the brief, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026
The Hawaii Public Utilities Commission on June 25, 2026, approved Hawaiian Electric's request to commit about $350.3 million to its 2025–2027 Wildfire Mitigation Plan, and approved recovering those costs from customers through the Exceptional Project Recovery Mechanism (EPRM). [source: PUC Decision and Order No. 42720, Docket No. 2025-0263, pp. 62, 65]
The order was signed by Chair Jon S. Itomura and Commissioners Naomi U. Kuwaye and Colin A. Yost. [source: D&O 42720, p. 67]
The approved request totals $350.33 million: $270.39 million in capital and $79.94 million in operations and maintenance (O&M). By area, Maui County accounts for $180.97 million, Hawaiʻi Island $101.54 million and Oʻahu $67.82 million. [source: D&O 42720, p. 13, Table 2]
Hawaiian Electric also removed $30.76 million in costs from its request. [source: D&O 42720, p. 13, Table 1]
The order further allows up to $3.9 million a year, subject to 3% escalation, for O&M after 2027, including a wildfire Watch Office, and allows recovery of 2025 O&M held in a regulatory account. [source: D&O 42720, pp. 62-63]
An earlier order, No. 42268 (Jan. 14, 2026), let the utility defer $11,506,000 of 2025 O&M. [source: D&O 42720, p. 17]
The order cites the companies' estimate that the plan would raise a typical residential bill (500 kWh a month) by $1.05 on Oʻahu, $2.86 on Hawaiʻi Island and $5.41 in Maui County; these are the utility's estimates, not PUC findings. [source: D&O 42720, p. 23]
Under the PUC's conditions, recovery is capped at $350.3 million for 2025–2027, plus $3.9 million a year after 2027, subject to 3% escalation. [source: D&O 42720, pp. 63–67; Ordering ¶¶ 2.A–E]
Hawaiian Electric is "prohibited from effectuating cost recovery" for approved costs through the EPRM "until the Commission has issued an Order addressing" its application for a financing order under HRS § 269G-2, and costs approved for bond financing cannot also be recovered through the EPRM. [source: D&O 42720, p. 63]
"Any approved Project costs that may be deemed ineligible for recovery through securitization may be recovered through the EPRM," the order says. [source: D&O 42720, p. 63]
The utility must file annual reports by March 31 showing the status of the work and actual costs, and must document that the plan's costs do not overlap with its routine (business-as-usual) work; the PUC kept the right to deny recovery for work outside the approved plan. [source: D&O 42720, pp. 63–67]
On Oct. 9, Hawaiian Electric asked the PUC to approve about $531 million in 30-year bonds to cover the $350 million plan, other wildfire work and grid upgrades, at what HECO estimates would be an average of $2.08 a month for residential customers. [source: HECO Application, Docket No. 2026-0235, Book 1, pp. 3–4, 59]
Two related requests are listed by the PUC: Docket No. 2026-0221 (filed Oct. 1, 2026), for EPRM recovery of 2026–2027 wildfire O&M, and Docket No. 2025-0382 (filed Oct. 21, 2025), a backup-power rebate program capped at $3 million a year; their status is not verified. [source: PUC Wildfire Mitigation Plans page; PUC Resilience and Reliability page]
Hawaiian Electric confirmed it received the questions but did not respond to them by the 5 p.m. HST Oct. 27 deadline. [source: Hawai'i Ledger newsroom]
the brief of Nov. 2, 2026 → · every brief for Oʻahu land use
Basis. Written by the Ledger in a session on Oct. 29, 2026 from the records linked in each sentence; it says what was on the record that day, in plain words, and does not predict outcomes or take sides. What has happened since is on Oʻahu land use's page. Corrections: the corrections log.