Power Grid
Each of Hawaii's six main islands has its own electrical grid, not connected to any other island. Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) and its subsidiaries, Maui Electric Company (MECO) and Hawaii Electric Light Company (HELCO), serve about 93% of the state's electric utility customers.
Hawaii was the first state to set a deadline for having 100% of its electricity sales come from renewable energy, which is required to be achieved by 2045. In 2020, the state's power suppliers met the interim requirement that 30% of electricity sales come from renewables.
Despite being among the five states with the lowest total energy consumption, Hawaii uses about 12 times more energy than it produces. More than four-fifths of Hawaii's energy consumption is petroleum, making it the most petroleum-dependent state.
In 2020, solar power provided almost 17% of Hawaii's total electricity, primarily from the increase in generation from small-scale, customer-sited solar panel systems that nearly doubled since 2015.
In 2020, the amount of Hawaii's coal-fired generation was the lowest since 1992, and coal fueled 11% of the state’s electricity generation. The state's single coal-fired power plant closed in 2022.
Hawaii has the highest electricity retail price of any state and it is nearly triple the U.S. average rate, in part because the state relies on imported petroleum for 60% of its electricity generation.
In 2021 the Hawaii Renewable energy percentage was 38%.
