Maui Electric to Operate EV Charging Network

In partnership with the County of Maui, Maui Economic Development Board, Ulupono Initiative, Blue Planet Foundation and Hitachi, Maui Electric will operate the existing electric vehicle fast-charging network on Maui.

As the company works on the transition, it will propose new rates to incentivize EV drivers to charge during midday hours, when cheaper solar energy is abundant. The Hawaiʻi Public Utilities Commission approved Maui Electric’s proposal to maintain the EV charging infrastructure at eight existing sites on Maui.

“With the high rate of EV adoption on Maui, we recognized that maintaining a publicly available fast-charging network was important,” said Sharon Suzuki, president of Maui County and Hawai‘i Island Utilities. “Having an established charging network helps to reduce range anxiety, provides charging options for EV drivers who don’t have the ability to install a charger at home and encourages more people to make the switch to EVs.”

MEDB currently owns the existing fast-charging network that supports more than 300 of the approximately 1,000 EV owners on the island through its EVohana membership program, which was established through the JUMPSmartMaui demonstration project. The project was a cooperative venture between Japan, the State of Hawai‘i, County of Maui, MEDB, Hitachi and Maui Electric that operated from 2011 to 2017 to exhibit smart grid technologies that could enable the efficient use of renewable energy on an island grid.

By the end of the project, MEDB gained ownership of the charging assets to continue providing fast-charging options to EV owners. MEDB partnered with Hitachi to create EVohana, while Hitachi continued to operate and maintain the assets through March of this year.

The County of Maui, MEDB, Ulupono Initiative and Blue Planet Foundation then formed a community consortium to develop a new long-term management model with Maui Electric. Without a new owner and operator, the charging infrastructure and program would have been discontinued. The consortium agreed that having Maui Electric sustain the charging network would be most beneficial to current and future users.