Regulators issue 260-page decision, approve 3-year Hawaiian Electric Wildfire Safety Strategy

The Public Utilities Commission has approved Hawaiian Electric’s expanded Wildfire Safety Strategy, which calls for deploying new technology, fortifying infrastructure, minimizing fire hazards and expanding community partnerships to significantly reduce the risk of a wildfire started by utility equipment.

The 260-page decision and order by the PUC concludes that the Hawaiian Electric plan “reasonably can be expected to reduce wildfire risk” and emphasizes the requirement for continuous improvement and adoption of metrics for tracking progress against targets and expenditures through 2027.

“We appreciate the PUC’s thorough review and approval of this comprehensive plan for the safety of our communities. This work is already underway and we’re working with many government agencies and community partners who are all focused on doing their parts to address the ongoing risk of wildfires,” said Jim Alberts, Hawaiian Electric senior vice president and chief operations officer.

The expanded wildfire safety strategy (PUC Docket 2025-0156) approved by the PUC identifies key initiatives including:

• Ongoing grid hardening, asset inspections and vegetation management focused on areas with medium to high risk of ignition
• Installing more weather stations, hazard-detection cameras, creating a wildfire-focused Watch Office and implementation of an operational wildfire risk model to inform real-time decision making and management of the company’s Public Safety Power Shutoff program
• Ongoing engagement with stakeholders and communities

In a separate docket, the PUC is considering the overall $480 million cost of the 3-year Wildfire Safety Strategy, about one-third of which is already funded through existing programs, including a federal grant for grid resilience received in 2024.

Approximately two-thirds of the cost will go toward capital investments in upgraded physical infrastructure, with one-third for operations and maintenance, such as equipment inspections and trimming and removal of thousands of hazardous trees.

Hawaiian Electric first created its wildfire safety plan 2019. It was updated in 2023 in the months after the August 2023 windstorm and wildfires on Maui. The enhanced plan underscores the recent emergence of extreme weather events as requiring a coordinated effort by many organizations and supportive public policy to keep communities safe.

In a related action, the PUC issued a study that analyzes the need for a recovery fund to compensate victims of a future catastrophic wildfire. The study, to be presented to the legislature, found “that a wildfire recovery fund is likely warranted in the future, but should not be established until other interconnected issues and decisions are resolved.”