Hawaii Regulators Approve Hawaiian Electric’s 2025–2027 Wildfire Mitigation Plan, Conclude Recovery Fund Study

The Hawaii Public Utilities Commission has approved Hawaiian Electric’s 2025–2027 Wildfire Mitigation Plan (WMP), advancing a multi-year regulatory effort to reduce wildfire risk across the utility’s service territories. Regulators also completed a legislatively mandated study on whether to establish a wildfire recovery fund for future events.

The WMP outlines measures intended to limit utility-caused ignition risk on O‘ahu, Hawai‘i Island, Maui, Moloka‘i, and Lāna‘i, including grid hardening, vegetation management, asset inspections, situational awareness systems, operational safety protocols, and potential public safety power shutoff (PSPS) procedures. The commission reviewed the plan through a process that included technical conferences, public meetings, and opportunities for stakeholder and community input.

In its approval order, the commission found that Hawaiian Electric substantially complied with established wildfire mitigation guidelines and that the plan could reasonably be expected to reduce wildfire risk. The filing was directed by regulators in response to elevated statewide wildfire concerns following the August 2023 Maui wildfires.

However, commissioners also instructed the utility to strengthen its strategy in several areas for future filings, including wildfire risk modeling, mitigation timelines and targets, post-incident workforce planning, support for vulnerable populations and critical facilities, and monitoring and auditing of mitigation work. Those refinements are expected to inform Hawaiian Electric’s 2026–2027 WMP update and its next full wildfire mitigation plan covering 2028–2029.

Separately, the commission completed a study required under Act 258 (2025) examining whether Hawaii should establish a wildfire recovery fund capable of compensating victims in future wildfire events while maintaining the financial stability of regulated utilities. Regulators concluded that a recovery fund is likely warranted but would require additional analysis, particularly regarding a potential utility liability cap.

Both actions align with the commission’s stated priority on safety in its 2024 Inclinations on the Future of Energy in Hawaiʻi and reflect an expanding regulatory focus on wildfire risk, resilience, and cost allocation in the state’s power sector.