On Sept. 6, Hawaiian Electric Co. (HECO) issued new regulations regarding future solar net-metering systems being installed. These wide-ranging but unclear regulations give HECO a lot of leeway to slow down solar installations and throw uncertainty on a thriving industry.

The regulations state: "In some cases on circuits between 75 percent and 100 percent of DML (daytime minimum load) upgrades may still be needed to interconnect safely. … We will determine any circuit or project upgrades needed. … If the utility installs the circuit upgrade, most customers will pay only a prorated share of the cost, based on system size."

What this means is that HECO can take months to study if someone can hook up to solar. Then months afterward, it can come back and charge an unknown amount of money for upgrades it thinks are needed.

So the solar customer doesn’t know what the entire cost of the system is, or when that system will be installed.

HECO’s regulations further state: "As we continue to monitor circuits and study representative circuits and study representative circuits, we anticipate experience and research will make it possible in the future for small systems to proceed without an IRS (interconnection requirement study)."

No deadline for the study to begin; no deadline for it to end.

This is having a major impact on the solar industry during our most busy time of year. Most solar companies are local, family-owned businesses that operate on tight margins — so to do this now, with no input or warning, is very insensitive to our fledgling industry.

HECO is a monopoly, poorly managed with antiquated infrastructure. Nevertheless, it is guaranteed a profit no matter how inefficient its operation. It runs big ads saying it is ready for solar — which we pay for — but what it is ready for is big solar farms that allow it to continue to charge consumers the highest rates in the nation.

Homeowners making their own energy through rooftop solar are the first real competition HECO has ever had. Of course it will do whatever it can to slow down solar installations and make us pay for its much-needed infrastructure upgrades.

To have HECO through "study" determine the rate of solar installation is a major conflict of interest and, literally, puts the fox in charge of the hen house. Who decides what upgrades are economically justifiable? HECO can put many scheduled upgrades on the backs of the solar industry.

The net energy metering agreement, which all solar system owners must sign to trade power with HECO, calls us "customer-generators." That means we provide power to HECO. We are in direct competition with HECO and our interests are divergent.

The state Public Utilities Commission should regulate net energy metering as a separate industry from HECO. HECO’s current regulations should be canceled immediately. An independent task force of industry experts should be created to review any studies and determine what the electric grid can and can’t handle, and explore solutions for meeting Hawaii’s goal of 40 percent "clean" energy.

For example, putting "smart meters" — meters that transmit to HECO what each solar house is producing in real time — would do more to solve the problem of expanding solar. If power managers know exactly how much power Kaneohe is producing at any given moment, for example, they can adjust their power output.

This process is too important to Hawaii’s future to be trusted to a company with a poor track record and no vested interest in solar’s success. I call upon the PUC to cancel HECO’s September regulations, and to start taking steps toward having an independent task force create regulations for solar energy hook-ups that are less one-sided.