Average Electric Rates for Hawaiian Electric Co., Maui Electric Co. and Hawaii Electric Light Co.

How much does your electricity cost?

Rates are not the same for all categories of customers because the rates are based on the cost of serving each category. It costs more on a cost per kilowatt-hour basis to serve residential and small business customers than it does to serve business customers consuming large amounts of electricity.

The cost of electricity in Hawaii is higher than on the U.S. mainland for a number of reasons.  For one, the electrical systems on each island are independent. Unlike on the mainland, there are no neighboring utility companies from which to draw power in the event of a problem with the generation or distribution systems. That means we must have reserve generating capacity and multiple distribution routes. Additionally, our state’s remote location adds to the cost of doing business.

To help our customers understand the price of electricity, following is a chart that provides the average price paid in cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in 2008, by each category of customers. The current rates are much lower, as the price of fuel used to produce electricity has decreased dramatically.

For example, the average price paid per kWh by residential customers in March 2009, on Oahu was 19.0 cents, and on the Big Island was 30.7 cents. For Maui County the average price paid per kWh by residential customers in March 2009, on Maui was 24.0 cents, on Molokai was 32.4 cents, and on Lanai was 31.1 cents.

Hawaiian Electric Company (island of Oahu)

Hawaii Electric Light Company (island of Hawaii)

Maui Electric Company (Maui County)

These figures are derived by dividing the total revenue by the total kWh sold for each category during the year.