Rising fuel oil prices pushed residential electricity bills higher on Oahu in June, Hawaiian Electric Co. reported Tuesday.
The rate for residential HECO customers in June is 35.1 cents a kilowatt-hour, up from 34.6 cents a kilowatt-hour in May, according to HECO. The June rate matched the previous record high set in December.
The June rate translates into a monthly bill of $218.60 for households using 600 kilowatts of electricity a month, up from $215.69 in May.
Hawaii consistently has the highest electricity costs in the nation, largely because of its dependence on expensive fuel oil for power generation.
Low-sulfur fuel oil, HECO’s primary source of power generation, cost $144.73 a barrel in June, up from $126.27 the same month a year ago. Prices for the fuel oil began climbing sharply in the Pacific Basin in early 2011 because of high demand from utilities in Japan. The country turned to oil-fired power plants to replace the generating capacity lost when it shut down many of its nuclear reactors after the devastating earthquake and tsunami there in March 2011.
"As we have over the past year, Hawaii continues to feel the impact of high prices for low-sulfur fuel oil, the fuel used to power most generators on Oahu, in the Asia-Pacific market, which includes Hawaii," said Peter Rosegg, HECO spokesman. "More than half the typical bill goes directly to pay fuel costs over which we have no control. It is a painful reminder that we have to get off oil as quickly and as completely as we can," he said.
Elsewhere in the state, Maui Electric Co. customers saw rates rise to 38.8 cents per kilowatt-hour in June from May’s 37.9 cents. The typical Maui bill rose by $6.27 to $241.90.
Hawaii island residential rates rose to 42 cents a kilowatt-hour from last month’s 41 cents. The typical bill rose by $5.99 to $262.41.
On Kauai the rate fell to 42.8 cents per kilowatt-hour. Last month the rate charged by the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative was 45.1 cents per kilowatt-hour.
Hawaii’s average statewide residential electricity rate was 37.05 a kilowatt-hour in March, more than three times the national average of 11.76 cents per kilowatt-hour, according to the latest data available from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
