Other Suitors For Hawaiian Electric
Gov. David Ige听would not name names, but he said “there is interest by more听than one company.”
There are other companies interested in , Gov. David Ige said Monday,听the same day that the state’s听largest utility and Florida-based NextEra Energy 听plans to merge.
Ige said he was “not at liberty” to name the companies but said “there is interest by more听than one company.”
On Friday, the state rejected the听$4.3 billion proposal to sell HEI听to . The PUC concluded the merger was not听in the public interest and not a good “fit” for Hawaii.
Ige echoed those points Monday at a press conference at the Capitol, and he praised the PUC for expanding the comment process on the NextEra-HEI docket to hear from a variety of interests.
The governor said he wants a company that is committed to a 100 percent renewable energy portfolio by 2045, a goal he said he did not believe NextEra shared.
“I think NextEra is a good company,” he said. “I just didn’t think it was a good company for Hawaii.”
Ige added that听the future process for selling HEI should go beyond what is important to the company’s shareholders and consider the broader community.
He said that he believed there was “lots of capital available” for investment in Hawaii’s energy infrastructure and that听“the model going forward” should be about a smart grid,听distributed energy generation听and “having different听people owning听different parts of that rather than听the utility听owning all parts.”
That ownership, said Ige, should include some measure of local control.
