Isles continue to pay steep price

Residential electric rates rose on Oahu in October from September, tracking an increase in the cost of fuel and power bought from independent producers, Hawaiian Electric Co. reported Thursday.

Rates also increased in October on all other islands.

The bill for a typical household on Oahu using 600 kilowatt-hours of electricity a month is $208.32 in October, $5.26 more than in September, according to HECO. The October rate is 33.2 cents a kilowatt-hour.

The rise in Oahu’s electric rate was largely due to an increase in the price for low-sulfur fuel oil, which accounts for more than 50 percent of a customer’s bill, a HECO spokesman said.

Reliance on oil for power generation is one of the primary reasons electricity in Hawaii is nearly three times the national average. Hawaii residents paid an average of 36.6 cents a kilowatt-hour for electricity in July compared with the national average of 12.6 cents a kilowatt-hour, according to the latest data available from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Washington state, which is one of the nation’s leaders in hydropower, had the lowest rate at 8.9 cents a kilowatt-hour.

Around the state, electricity rates were the highest on Kauai, where residents paid 42.9 cents a kilowatt-hour, up from 42.3 cents last month.

Hawaii island’s residential rate rose to 41.4 cents a kilowatt-hour from last month’s 40.4 cents.

Maui Electric Co. customers saw their rate increase to 37.4 cents per kilowatt-hour from 36.3 cents last month.

Hawaii’s high electricity prices have driven a surge in installation of solar photovoltaic systems. Hawaii’s electrical utilities in 2012 had the highest solar energy penetration in the nation, according to a report released recently by the Solar Electric Power Association.

Maui Electric Co. led the nation with 5.4 percent of its customer base owning or leasing a photovoltaic solar system. HECO was second at 5.2 percent, followed by Hawaii Electric Light Co. at 4.1 percent and Kauai Island Utility Cooperative at 3.1 percent, according to the report.