The state Consumer Advocate said Monday NextEra Energy Inc.’s proposed purchase of Hawaii’s largest electric utility is not in the public interest. 

Consumer Advocate Jeffrey Ono said the current proposal is not in the public interest because NextEra has not clearly laid out how its purchase of Hawaiian Electric Industries will result in significant benefits for consumers. 

The agency said NextEra offered “flawed and broad speculative savings estimates” during the review. 

“These kinds of asserted savings based on NextEra’s faulty calculations effectively overstate the potential benefits of the proposed merger, thereby creating an illusory benefit,” said Ono. “Since our mission is to protect and advance the interests of Hawaii’s consumers, we have serious concerns about this proposed merger.” 

NextEra, which said in December it plans to buy HEI for $4.3 billion, promised HEI customers would save approximately $60 million across four years after the sale is approved. 

“The company’s filings do not clearly or consistently explain how these savings will materialize to the full extent they have been claimed,” said the Consumer Advocate in a press release. “This includes, for example, millions of dollars in purported savings resulting from broad reductions in operations and maintenance expenses that have not been clearly laid out despite the company having ample opportunity to clarify these and other benefits during the discovery period.” 

The Consumer Advocate filed its testimony with the Public Utilities Commission Monday, recommending several conditions to the NextEra deal that need to be adopted to protect consumers and to immediately return merger savings to consumers.  The PUC must approve the purchase before it can go forward. The PUC has said it will make a decision by June.

The Consumer Advocate’s opposition to the sale followed Gov. David Ige statement on July 20 that he is against the sale as it currently is structured.

NextEra’s and HEI’s rebuttal to the Consumer Advocate and other testimony in the case is scheduled to be filed Aug. 31.

To read the Consumer Advocate’s testimony, see cca.hawaii.gov/dca.