Hawaii’s largest electric company plans to spend $300 million over the next three years, on top of $120 million this year, to reduce the risk of wildfires.

Hawaiian Electric estimates that its investment this year reduces the risk of its equipment starting such a fire by 60 percent, and that additional investment through 2027 will bring the company closer to achieving a long-term goal of reducing that risk by 80 percent at an estimated cost of approximately $1 billion.

The company, which serves Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Lanai and Hawaii Island, presented its plans and projections to a group of state senators on Friday.

Much of the information presented will be part of a fire risk mitigation plan that Hawaiian Electric must submit to the state Public Utilities Commission by Jan. 10 as part of an order issued by the PUC on Sept. 13 , about 13 months after the August 8, 2023, Maui wildfire that killed 102 people and destroyed most of Lahaina.

A power line in Lahaina that was damaged by high winds and re-energized after a visual inspection was found by an independent review to be a major contributing factor in the disaster, leading to a pending settlement of 4 billions of dollars for victims of the fires, to be paid in principal. by the utility, state and Kamehameha Schools.

Three Senate committees have asked Hawaiian Electric for a briefing on the company’s plan being prepared for the PUC.

“Our No. 1 priority over the past 15 months has been reducing the risk of another catastrophic fire in Hawaii,” Jason Benn, chief transformation officer and chief administrative officer of Hawaiian Electric, told the Senate panel in a state Capitol conference room. “We have made significant progress in reducing the risk of wildfires starting from our equipment. We’ve brought in experts and partnered with other utilities to use best practices and take actions that have the greatest impact, but also consider cost-effectiveness.”

The biggest improvement this year, cost-wise, was replacing about 2,000 wooden power poles with stronger wooden or steel poles at a cost of $61.9 million, according to the company’s presentation.

Other pieces of the $120 million spent this year include $12.5 million to replace single-frame copper power lines with stronger aluminum lines, $10.3 million for distribution system inspections, 8 $.6 million for safeties and $6.3 million for vegetation management.

Over the next three years, at least one-third of Hawaiian Electric’s planned spending is slated to replace at least 2,100 poles for $58.9 million and to replace about 9,200 fuses along power lines with fuses “of fire safety’ in high and medium fire risk areas. at a cost of $43.7 million.

Most of the company’s existing fuses, which stop the transmission of electricity in the event of a surge, can emit molten embers or sparks when they blow to prevent further system damage.

“We believe this is an important component of fire risk mitigation,” Colton Ching, senior vice president of planning and technology for Hawaiian Electric, told the Senate committee. “We want to do as much as we can. … We are looking to wrap this up in 2026 in our high and medium risk areas.”

Other equipment upgrades planned over the next three years include improved energy absorbers for lightning strikes, fault indicators, better circuit breakers, weather stations, cameras that can spot smoke and stronger power lines.

Ching said Hawaiian Electric has 53 weather stations that were part of a public safety power outage program the company instituted in July.

The program is designed to shut off power to high fire risk areas if wind gusts exceed 45 mph and relative humidity drops below 45 percent. Since July, Hawaiian Electric has warned customers of a possible safety shutdown twice, including once on Maui on Oct. 16, though no outages occurred because the trigger conditions were ultimately not met.

Another 250 weather stations are planned over the next three years at a cost of $9 million according to the company’s plan.

Installing 27 miles of stronger power lines, estimated to cost $15.3 million, is also part of the plan and will follow 16 miles of line upgrades this year.

The company also plans to replace 800 miles of older bare-wire lines with insulated lines, though that’s a longer-term and more expensive proposition that may also require pole upgrades because of the added weight.

Ching told the Senate committee that the company anticipates installing about 50 miles of insulated line annually for about $100 million starting in 2026.

Another long-term, but more uncertain, upgrade is the undergrounding of overhead power lines. Ching said 51 percent of the utility’s distribution lines are now underground, and the company knows Lahaina residents especially want restoration of the historic town to include underground lines.

However, Ching also said much depends on Maui County’s redevelopment plans and permitting, which could take many years. Feasibility, including a cost of $11 million per mile of underground lines compared to $1 million per mile for overhead lines, must also be evaluated.

“It becomes quite invasive when you think about putting underground in a place that is already built, a place where there are already houses, already streets, already sidewalks, already water, sewage, telecommunications lines in the road,” he told the panel . “If you’re going to go from surface to underground in an existing community, it’s a lot more expensive and a lot more difficult than building it in a brand new community that’s basically a field right now.”

In some areas, insulating overhead lines can be as effective in reducing fire risk as putting the lines underground, Ching added.

To reduce the cost of the improvements to taxpayers, Ching explained that the company sought $659 million in federal grants, but that grant applications totaling about $550 million were not approved.

Grant applications totaling about $13 million are still pending, and the company received a $95 million federal grant in 2023 after the Maui fire to pay for half of its 190-year climate adaptation plan. million dollars, which the company proposed to the PUC in June. 2022.

Earlier this year, Hawaiian Electric wanted lawmakers to pass a bill that would help reduce the cost of funding fire risk mitigation work, which is passed on to ratepayers. But the bill, which would have allowed the utility to sell bonds backed by ratepayer revenue, has been defeated, in part because of questions about fire risk mitigation plans.

Senator Jarrett Keohokalole, chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection, was instrumental in killing the bill. As the primary chair of Friday’s panel, Keohokalole (D, Kaneohe-Kailua) said Hawaiian Electric’s presentation was helpful.

Sen. Glenn Wakai, chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Safety and Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, questioned whether Hawaiian Electric would put its plan into action.

“Why should the public trust you and HECO to do any of the things you just mentioned today,” Wakai said, “when your track record shows that you’re just sitting on plans and not putting everything into action the things you say you’re going to do?”

Wakai (D, Kalihi-Salt Lake-Pearl Harbor) cited a 2019 task force report that recommended some of the improvements now being made.

Ching noted that the report, developed by stakeholders that included the utility as well as state and federal agency representatives, led to significant investments in vegetation management, utility pole replacement and the $95 million federal grant application before the Lahaina fire , even though the report classified forest fire. as a lesser threat than hurricanes, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes and cyber attacks.

Wakai also criticized Hawaiian Electric for not spending more on fire risk mitigation in the years before the Lahaina disaster, while about $450 million was paid out in dividends to the parent company’s shareholders. utility, Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc.

HEI suspended dividends after the Lahaina fire and agreed to pay $2 billion toward the $4 billion settlement, pending state court approval.

Benn said Hawaiian Electric’s ratepayers will in no way cover the settlement expenses.

“Customers will not pay a penny for the settlement,” he told the panel. “There is no impact on the bill. If the settlement is approved, it will be fully borne by our shareholders and our company.”

Hawaiian Electric expects to pay its outstanding $1.92 billion obligation, after an earlier contribution of $75 million, in four equal annual installments of about $479 million. The first payment, expected at the end of 2025, is covered by the $558 million HEI raised in September through the sale of new shares.

On Friday, HEI reported a financial loss of $104 million for the three months ended Sept. 30, which included an after-tax charge of $151 million for fire litigation claims. HEI took the brunt of the settlement expense in the previous quarter as part of a $1.3 billion financial loss.