A Message from Hawaiian Electric President and CEO Scott Seu

Scott Seu, President and CEO, Hawaiian Electric

Maui Quick Links:

• Maui Now’s Coronavirus Section.
• Maui Now’s Running List of Closures, Cancellations, Postponed Items and Notices for Maui.
• Mayor Victorino’s Emergency Rules begin at 7:45 a.m. on Friday, March 20

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Hawaiian Electric President and CEO Scott Seu issued an open letter to customers today in light of the rapidly changing environment surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Tuesday, the company announced it would suspend service disconnections for 30 days “so customers who are financially challenged by the coronavirus pandemic don’t have to worry about losing electric service.”

Seu’s full message is posted below:

A Message from President and CEO Scott Seu

The coronavirus situation is new to all of us. What’s especially hard is not knowing what’s ahead.

What I can tell you is that Hawaiian Electric is on the job. We’ll be here, because we know providing safe, reliable electric service is essential for households, businesses, our first responders and health-care workers and facilities. It’s foundational for the recovery of our communities and our economy.

Here’s what else we’re doing to support our community.

Because we know many of our customers will be financially challenged by the slowdown of our economy, we’re taking steps to ease the worry. We have suspended disconnections for non-payment for at least 30 days, until April 17, and we may extend that period depending on the situation at the time. We are asking customers who are having trouble paying their electric bills because of the coronavirus emergency to call us about payment options and schedules. More information is available at www.hawaiianelectric.com.

Also, our charitable foundation is contributing $125,000 to community partners, including the Hawai’i Foodbank and United Way agencies on O’ahu, Maui, Kaua’i and Hawai’i Island to help families in need.

While we’re experienced in responding to hurricanes and other natural disasters, we’ve also conducted business continuity exercises that helped us plan day-to-day operations in a pandemic. We’re working closely with federal, state and county emergency response agencies and we’ve taken steps to keep our employees healthy and on the job and to keep customers safe.

Many employees are working from home and we have temporarily closed our walk-in service centers until March 30. But we’re still available on the phone and online for services like stopping/starting electric service and billing questions. Our crews are still doing scheduled maintenance and construction work to keep our grid strong and reliable, and they’re available to respond to outages.

We’re all feeling anxious and unsettled, concerned for our families and our community. I hope this note gives you one less thing to worry about.

Our Hawaiian Electric team is responding to this unprecedented situation with care and conviction and I know that by supporting each other and working with patience and aloha, we will all get through this.

With aloha,

Scott Seu
President and CEO
Hawaiian Electric