Question: Why are rates lower in the updated “Shift and Save”?

Answer: New residential time-of-use rates announced for the Hawaiian Electric pilot program set to begin Feb. 1 reflect lower fuel costs since rates were first announced in July, Darren Pai, a HECO spokesperson, said Monday in an email. “Shift and Save” had been expected to launch in October but was delayed after the Maui wildfires in August; Maui County customers will not be included unless they opt in.

About 16,000 customers on Oahu and Hawaii island will be notified by email or postal mail by Dec. 5 that they have been randomly selected for this program, which through its variable rates encourages “customers to shift electricity use from the evening and overnight period when energy is generated by expensive fossil fuels to the daytime period when solar energy is abundant and less expensive,” HECO said in a news release.

The rate periods will be Daytime (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.), Evening Peak (5 to 9 p.m.) and Overnight (9 p.m. to 9 a.m.). Residential TOU rates will be slightly lower in each category than previously announced:

Oahu

>> Daytime: 17 cents per kilowatt-hour (down 2 cents)

>> Evening Peak: 52 cents per kWh (down 5 cents)

>> Overnight: 35 cents per kWh (down 3 cents)

Hawaii island

>> Daytime: 21 cents per kWh (down 1 cent)

>> Evening Peak: 62 cents per kWh (down 4 cents)

>> Overnight: 41 cents per kWh (down 3 cents)

The 16,000 customers tapped for the one-year study include 12,000 residential and commercial customers identified earlier this year, before the pilot was delayed, plus an additional 4,000, the news release said.

“If customers don’t receive a notice, they are not enrolled in the Shift and Save pilot. Customers selected for the pilot can choose not to participate,” it said.

Hawaiian Electric says it won’t make or lose money on “Shift and Save” and that residential and commercial customers in the program will be protected from spikes in their electrical bills for the first six months. Read more at hawaiianelectric.com/shiftandsave.

Q: Regarding the EBT fraud, there’s a federal website that says a state can use federal funds to replace stolen SNAP benefits if its plan is approved by a certain federal agency, and I don’t see Hawaii listed. Please follow up.

A: You are referring to the “SNAP Replacement of Stolen Benefits Dashboard,” a website of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, which is updated quarterly to display claims submitted by states about stolen benefits and approved federal reimbursements, along with other information. Only a few states are activated on the dashboard now, and, as you noted, Hawaii isn’t one of them. However, the website notes that states’ reporting periods vary.

We followed up with the state Department of Human Services, and Administrator Scott Morishige replied right before Kokua Line’s vacation that FNS has approved Hawaii’s plan, Hawaii does have authority to use federal funds to replace stolen SNAP benefits and that he did not know when Hawaii’s data would appear on the dashboard. “Hawaii is finalizing our data submission to FNS for the period of July through September 2023. We do not know the timeframe for FNS to update data to the dashboard following submission,” he said Nov. 15 in an email.

DHS issued a fraud alert Nov. 6 urging SNAP recipients to check their Electronic Benefit Transfer accounts for unauthorized activity, report fraud to a DHS Processing Center and request a replacement card. SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, is delivered via EBT cards, which are susceptible to skimming and other scams, like other debit cards (as well as credit cards).

Mahalo

My husband picked up our medications from Safeway Pharmacy Ewa Beach and promptly drove off with them on the hood of our car! He only discovered he didn’t have the meds, with our protected health information in the bag, once he got home! About an hour later I received a phone call from a wonderful couple who found the meds and wished to return them. They were on their way to a doctor’s appointment but turned around to deliver the medication directly to our home! They had the address and phone number from the information in the bag. This couple went out of their way to pick up the medication before it was run over, took the trouble to call me and then express-delivered it to our house! Good that goes around comes around. We are most thankful and grateful to them. Blessings to them. — Melanie O.

Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.