HEI verdict won’t take long, PUC chairman says

The talk is over and now three people will decide.

The state Public Utilities Commission on Tuesday ended 22 days of hearings into Florida-based NextEra Energy Inc.’s proposed purchase of Hawaiian Electric Industries. The three commissioners will make a decision in the coming months. The PUC’s approval is the last regulatory hurdle the companies must clear if the $4.3 billion sale is to close.

NextEra and HEI argued that NextEra could lower electrical rates and provide the financial backing and expertise needed to push the state toward its goal of 100 percent electric power from renewable sources by 2045. Opponents were concerned about moving control of the local utility to a mainland company and Next­Era’s resistance to a new model for the utility that focuses on distributing the energy generated by many small producers.

PUC Chairman Randy Iwase said he doesn’t think the review will go beyond the fall but added that the PUC isn’t working under the weight of a deadline.

“I don’t think it will be that long,” Iwase said. “We have to keep an open mind as we go through this. It’s a lot of evidence we have to go through.”

NextEra announced the bid Dec. 3, 2014, entering a one-year contract with HEI. The contract allowed for a six-month extension. Iwase said the companies’ June 3 deadline does not apply to the PUC.

“That’s their deadline. That’s not ours,” Iwase said.

Iwase as well as Commissioners Mike Champley and Lorraine Akiba will have the final say on the sale of the state’s largest electrical utility. Adding pressure as to when the decision will be made is the fact that Champley’s term expires at the end of June.

Champley said that he did not know whether he would be reappointed if the review extends beyond his term.

“That’s a decision for the governor to make,” Champley said.

When asked, Gov. David Ige’s office did not provide a comment about whether Champley would be kept on staff beyond June if the PUC has not made a decision.

A highlight of the hearings came with the release of a confidential email in which HEI President and CEO ­Connie Lau said a NextEra executive gave her the impression the company viewed the acquisition of HEI as a “snack” on Next­Era’s way to a buffet of other mainland utilities.

The PUC drew criticism when Iwase closed to the public portions of two days of the hearings to discuss confidential documents. Iwase made it clear to participants that he did not want any further closed-door sessions and urged parties to make documents filed in the case public.

There are 25 groups, known as intervenors, involved in the PUC’s review of the sale, and all but one, the Department of Defense, are opposed to the deal. Several of the intervenors were not willing Tuesday to predict how the commission will vote.

“I don’t have any insight which way (the commission will rule),” said Henry Curtis, executive director of Life of the Land.

Curtis was one of the last to take the stand Tuesday and said NextEra would lay off at minimum 1,000 workers. NextEra has promised there will be no involuntary workforce reductions for two years after the sale closes.

“Anybody looking at this would know that FPL (Florida Power &Light, NextEra’s Florida utility) has systematically laid off workers in Florida,” Curtis said. “That same practice would occur here.”

NextEra Energy spokesman Rob Gould said the company is confident in what it has offered the PUC as the agency takes the application under review.

“After 22 days of hearings and having filed approximately 110,000 pages in response to 6,000 questions over a period of more than one year, as well as the broad-based support that we have received from so many across the state including business, labor and community groups, we remain steadfast in our belief that NextEra Energy is the right partner for Hawaiian Electric,” Gould said.

Next­Era is offering a $60 million credit to customers over four years and vowed to not seek a rate increase over that period of time.

“Aside from learning that Hawaii is a snack on the way to a mega-monopoly electric utility, the most notable thing from the hearing was what wasn’t said,” said Robert Harris, spokesman for The Alliance for Solar Choice. “NextEra failed to make the case that this acquisition provided a substantial net benefit to the public.”

After the often contentious hearings ended Tuesday, all the groups shook hands. NextEra Energy Hawaii LLC’s CEO, Eric Gleason, shook hands with many of the intervenors who vehemently opposed the sale. Gould, who is based in Florida but attended most of the hearings, said he had never seen a farewell like that at the end of a hearing.