Hawaiian Electric Launches Customer Energy Department

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Hawaiian Electric Companies is hoping its new Customer Energy Resources department will more effectively serve customers with rooftop solar and other devices that can interact with the electric grid.

The single department will include personnel based on Maui, Hawaiʻi Island, and Oʻahu, Hawaiian Electric announced on Friday.

Hawaiian Electric officials say the more “streamlined organization” will focus on attracting more customers to private rooftop solar, storage, and grid services.

“To reach our clean energy goals, we will need to at least double the 80,000 customer-sited rooftop solar systems in the next 25 years and see much higher customer participation directly or through aggregators in programs that provide incentives or different pricing,” senior vice president for customer service SheleeKimura said in a press release.

Now that customers can add rooftop solar, energy storage, demand response devices like grid-interactive water heaters, and electric vehicles that store energy on their side of the meter, “it made sense to unify and simplify the customers’ interaction with the companies,” Kimura added.

Early next year, Hawaiian Electric plans to publish a “Customer Energy Resources Strategy” that will lay out the policies and programs anticipated to meet customer needs in the near future.