Biden pledges $95M to harden Hawaii electric grids

Nearly $100 million is “on the way” from the federal government to upgrade Hawaii’s electric grid to better withstand extreme weather events, but it’s unclear how many improvements the money can pay for as well as where and when.

President Joseph Biden announced Wednesday from the White House that a $95 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy was accelerated to “harden” the power grid on Maui and in the rest of the state.

The money, Biden said, will be used in part to strengthen power line infrastructure in four ways:

>> Strengthening critical transmission lines, including two on Maui.

>> Burying lines underground.

>> Replacing wooden poles with fire-resistant material.

>> Hardening poles that support critical uses such as hospitals, water facilities, emergency response and the military.

Biden also said the funding, provided under 2021’s $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will be used for “smart meters” that identify where a line goes down, “intelligent switches” that help reduce wildfire risk, vegetation removal under overhead lines, and relocation of Maui’s grid control center to a more secure and resilient location.

“We’re not only building back, but we’re going to build back stronger for a more resilient future, which means we need to be ready to withstand any challenge coming our way,” he said. “All of this is going to help Maui and the entire state of Hawaii better withstand future disasters, because this is not going away. It’s not like these are the last disasters.”

The president, 22 days after a wildfire destroyed around 2,200 buildings and damaged more than 500 more over 5.5 square miles of land making up nearly all of Lahaina, said that the grant announcement is part of his administration’s effort to “meet the moment” to help Maui recover and rebuild.

Other federal agencies are spending hundreds of millions of dollars aiding survivors of the fire that killed at least 115 people, investigating the disaster, cleaning up the environment and other things.

According to Katie Weeks, communications director of the Energy Department’s Grid Deployment Office, the $95 million is a competitive grant being awarded to Hawaiian Electric.

Weeks said the utility company, which serves every county except Kauai, still must negotiate a funding agreement with the department.

Hawaiian Electric, which has been named in over a dozen lawsuits, including one filed by Maui County, for allegedly being liable for the Lahaina fire that caused an estimated $5.6 billion in damage, did not respond to questions.

On Wednesday evening, the company said in a news release that the federal grant will pay for half of a $190 million proposed climate adaptation transmission and distribution resiliency plan that it proposed to the state Public Utilities Commission in June 2022.

The company said it applied for the federal grant in April.

Hawaiian Electric also said the federal match will reduce the project’s cost to customers by 50%. The company did not say how much that cost per customer would be.

“We appreciate the support from the Department of Energy and the Biden Administration as we work with our partners on Maui to restore and rebuild areas devastated by the wildfires,” Shelee Kimura, Hawaiian Electric president and CEO, said in the statement. “This funding significantly alleviates the cost burden on customers as we intensify work to strengthen our grids on Maui and across the islands we serve.”

It’s not publicly clear how far $95 million will go to improve parts of the electric grid in Hawaii where materials, equipment and labor are very costly.

Putting power lines underground in Hawaii has its own drawbacks, which include risk of flooding, accidental damage from construction work, more expensive maintenance and more time to restore power when there’s a problem. It’s also costly.

In 2017, it was estimated to cost $70 million to underground roughly 2 miles of overhead power lines along Dillingham Boulevard in Honolulu for the city’s rail project. Doing the same thing along the first 11 miles of the rail route from East Kapolei to Halawa potentially could have cost $200 million, and thus was not undertaken.

Biden acknowledged a generally higher cost for underground lines compared with overhead, and said where possible it should be done for safety. He also said hardening a power grid should be done along with power companies shutting off power ahead of forecast danger, depending on circumstances. Hawaiian Electric does not have a formal public safety power shutoff program.

Hawaiian Electric is already spending a lot of money to restore service on Maui. It’s possible that some improvements funded by the company will be paid for by customers. The federal grant is paid for nationally by taxpayers.

Hawaii U.S. Rep. Ed Case said in an email that Biden accelerated the major grant benefiting Hawaii “because it is crystal clear from the Maui tragedy and our other recent wildfires and weather events that our energy grid is not sufficiently resilient and must be reviewed and improved imminently from one end of our state to the other.”

Case added that it is Hawaiian Electric’s responsibility, with federal and state oversight, to focus grant money spending on addressing portions of Hawaii’s electric transmission grid with the greatest needs and risks.

The Energy Department’s Grid Deployment Office has previously awarded a grid resilience grant for Hawaii.

The office announced earlier this year that $2.3 billion in such grants for states, territories and tribal entities will be distributed over five years under an initial funding round to strengthen and modernize America’s power grid against wildfires, extreme weather and other natural disasters in the face of climate change.

On June 16, the office announced that the Hawaii State Energy Office would receive a $6.1 million award to benefit disadvantaged communities while engaging community leadership and residents. To execute these plans, HSEO created a new Community Engagement and Public Affairs branch and will hold a competitive selection process to identify projects to use the federal grant funding.