HECO details $120M spent on wildfire safety, resiliency measures in 2024

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Hawaiian Electric executives updated state Senate leaders on its wildfire mitigation plan during an informational briefing Friday morning.
HECO said it spent a third of this year’s budget, about $120 million, on wildfire safety and resiliency measures.
That includes everything from new equipment, fire detection technology, and systems that shut down power when faced with threats.
For instance, lightning arresters are being installed to protect against a surge in voltage and “is designed to absorb that energy and not have that same emission of embers,” said Kurt Sukiyama, director of transmission and distribution operations for Maui and Hawaii counties.
“Replacing fuses, the traditional fuses, with these fire safe fuses, and we plan to do quite a bit more next year and in 2026,” said Colton Ching, senior vice president, planning and technology.
HECO executives said changes they’re making have reduced the risk of its infrastructure igniting a wildfire by 60%, including targeting areas with a higher risk of wildfires and working with property owners to create fire breaks.
“Vegetation trimming is very expensive. It takes a lot of time to do trimming around energized lines, and so we use those risk maps to help us determine where do we prioritize the work,” Ching said.
They’re incorporating lessons from the Lahaina wildfire, including undergrounding power lines and making operational changes like a public safety power shutoff program that alerts customers when there are threat-related disruptions.
“This new configuration of having circuits trip much faster and not trying to reenergize that circuit after detects it stays completely deenergized until someone manually reenergized that circuit,” Ching said.
It’s also upgrading its video cameras, drones, and weather stations to detect hazards early.
Ching demonstrated the technology, adding that anyone can monitor conditions in real time at alertwest.live.
HECO also installed 2,200 new poles to withstand stronger winds and upgraded 16 miles of power lines.
Some lawmakers were skeptical, saying millions of dollars went to HECO shareholders rather than safety measures suggested in a 2019 report.
“Why should the public have any confidence in you and HECO to do any of the things you just mentioned today, when your track record proves that you just sit on plans and really don’t put into action all the things that you say you plan to do?” said state Sen. Glenn Wakai. chair of the Committee on Public Safety and Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and vice chair of the Committee on Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism.
“The numbers we show you today, since Aug. 23 through ’24 are real numbers, real work, real quantities of doing our very best and to address wildfire risk,” said Jason Benn, HECO senior vice president and chief transformation and administrative officer.
Executives added that customers will not pay any part of its $2 billion Lahaina wildfire settlement.
“We’ve already taken steps to finance it, as evidenced by the recent sale of more than $500 million in stock, which will be used to pay for the first of four planned installments,” Benn said.
HECO’s goal is to cut risk by 80% across all islands. It plans to spend $300 million over the next three years, a third funded by federal grants.
HECO’s plan is due to the Public Utilities Commission on Jan. 10, 2025.
View the current version of HECO’s Wildfire Mitigation Plan here.
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