Shining a Light on Utility Performance in Hawaii’s Clean Energy Transition

This policy brief describes the implementation of performance-based regulation (PBR) in Hawaii, where the Public Utilities Commission approved nearly 40 metrics and scorecards to hold Hawaiian Electric accountable to clean energy and social goals. It highlights the use of diverse outcomes, the challenges of establishing targets for emergent goals, and the importance of stakeholder engagement in designing a comprehensive regulatory portfolio.

• In June 2021, the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (PUC) approved a performance-based regulation (PBR) framework consisting of nearly 40 metrics and scorecards. These are publicly reported by Hawaiian Electric to increase transparency and accountability regarding social and policy objectives, moving away from traditional "cost of service" regulation which can hinder investments in clean energy technologies.
• The Hawaii PUC's PBR process is based on 12 outcomes, spanning traditional priorities like reliability and affordability to emergent areas such as customer equity and transportation electrification. While some outcomes use performance incentive mechanisms (PIMs) for financial rewards or penalties, others use publicly reported scorecards to motivate improvement in areas where data is insufficient for financial incentive design.
• To address energy affordability for low- to moderate-income (LMI) customers, the Hawaii PUC adopted three specific metrics: the proportion of customers disconnected for nonpayment, the proportion of customers in payment arrangements for unpaid debt, and an LMI Energy Burden metric. The LMI Energy Burden metric uses 150 percent of the Hawaii Federal Poverty Limit as the income threshold and employs proxies for annual electricity expenditures, such as average residential bills and estimated typical bills by island.

APA

RMI (2022). Shining a Light on Utility Performance in Hawaii’s Clean Energy Transition. https://rmi.org/resources/shining-a-light-on-utility-performance-in-hawaii/

Chicago

RMI. Shining a Light on Utility Performance in Hawaii’s Clean Energy Transition. 2022. https://rmi.org/resources/shining-a-light-on-utility-performance-in-hawaii/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Shining a Light on Utility Performance in Hawaii’s Clean Energy Transition |date=7 April 2022 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/shining-a-light-on-utility-performance-in-hawaii/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2022shining, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Shining a Light on Utility Performance in Hawaii’s Clean Energy Transition}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2022}, month = apr, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/shining-a-light-on-utility-performance-in-hawaii/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }