Utility buyer suggests ownership model

Washington D.C.-based Twenty First Century Utilities, a company looking to own and operate regulated utilities, proposed a business model that could be used in Hawaii at the Maui Energy Conference.

“Hawaii is a fascinating place, great for renewables, and it would be exciting to try this model here,” said Cheryl Roberto, partner at Twenty First Century Utilities (TFC), after describing the group’s customer-centered utility business model during a panel Thursday.

“I know there have been discussions in Hawaii over what is the appropriate ownership model for a utility,” she said. “There’s a study underway now on whether it should be an investor-owned utility, a municipality or a co-op. I’ll suggest to you there might be a fourth model that is well worth looking at, and that would be ownership by a small consortium of investors … folks who are looking for returns over decades, who will commit themselves to a benefit corporation structure.”

After NextEra Energy Inc.’s proposed $4.3 billion acquisition of Hawaiian Electric Industries was rejected in July by the state Public Utilities Commission, some in Hawaii’s energy community said TFC was one suitor lining up to buy Hawaiian Electric Co.

“They’ve been in the shadows for a year, and now they’ve popped out,” said Henry Curtis, executive director of environmental group Life of the Land.

Curtis said that TFC met with many members of the energy community over that year.

“They went the reverse way of NextEra,” he said.

NextEra signed its deal with HEI, parent company of Hawaiian Electric Co., Maui Electric Co. and Hawaii Electric Light Co., before reaching out to stakeholders in the community.

TFC said the investment group has not made an offer for Hawaii’s electrical utilities.

Alan Oshima, president of HECO, said in November that the two companies have met and that a lot of the work TFC was proposing HECO already was pursuing and capable of handling on its own.

TFC’s business model includes customers buying energy-efficient appliances, rooftop solar systems or batteries through the utility and paying for the devices over time on their electrical bills. The bills would be customized by the appliances and technologies the customers buy.

“We’re expanding the opportunity to deploy capital,” Roberto said. “Hawaii does a great job, but there is also always room for more market-priced energy efficiency.”

Roberto said she doesn’t see the electrical utility as the sole provider of energy, but a platform.

“What I’m suggesting is that the role of this electric utility going forward is actually creating a marketplace for all of these third-party vendors to match up with customers who are interested in their projects and services and … provide them the capital to make those investments.”

With this new model, “Hawaii would be a place for leading this new energy economy,” Roberto said.

TFC announced in September that it was in “advanced conversations to acquire moderate-sized utilities with a deal likely to take shape in 2017.”

The company said it is primarily focused on the U.S. market but has previously looked at a couple of deals in Mexico.

Luis Salaveria, director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism and the moderator of the panel where Roberto presented, said the model Roberto proposed was “certainly a possibility” in Hawaii.

“It’s certainly something that is going to enter the conversation,” he said. “It’s hard to say if that is going to be the reality or if it is going to be a hybrid. One thing I’m certain of is that the relationship between the utility and the ratepayer is changing.”