Capital Formation

This page contains reported metrics related to capital formation, which are further described below:

• Credit Ratings Reported Metric
• Third-Party Generation Reported Metric

Credit Ratings Reported Metric

Metric: Credit rating of the Companies and annual outlook, including directionality

Reporting Frequency: Quarterly

This metric indicates Hawaiian Electric’s credit worthiness – its ability and/or likelihood to attract capital to make investments that support Hawaii’s energy policy goals while maintaining reliable service for customers.

Credit rating agencies evaluate a company's ability to repay debt. Based on their assessment using their methodology, they assign credit ratings (Grades A, B, C, etc.). The credit rating impacts a company's ability to borrow money and the interest rate which it has to pay. The lower the rating, the higher the interest cost. Conversely, the higher the rating, the lower the interest cost. The cost of debt (weighted average interest rate) is included in each island region's composite cost of capital which becomes the rate of return on average rate base embedded in electric rates that Hawaiian Electric charges customers.

Ratings are grouped into categories ranging from 'Prime' (highest rating and lowest cost) to 'In Default' (lowest rating and highest cost or unable to borrow). Ratings from 'Prime' to 'Lower Medium Grade' are considered 'Investment Grade'. Ratings below 'Lower Medium Grade' (Fitch's and S&P's BBB- and Moody's Baa3) are considered 'Non-Investment Grade', or speculative or junk bond. Companies with 'Non-Investment Grade' ratings would be at risk of having higher interest costs and/or not being able to attract investors for its bonds.

Rating outlooks indicate the direction (e.g. positive, negative, stable) a rating is likely to move, generally over a one-year to two-year period. They incorporate trends or risks that have not reached a level that would trigger a rating action, but may trigger one if such trends or risks continue. Ratings may be placed on credit watch if events or circumstances occur that may affect a credit rating in the near term. Updating a rating outlook or placing a rating on credit watch does not mean a change in credit rating is inevitable.

The most recent ratings and credit outlooks issued by Fitch, Moody's, and S&P for Hawaiian Electric as a consolidated entity (including Oahu, Maui County and Hawaii Island) are presented in the table below. On August 15, 2023, S&P downgraded Hawaiian Electric’s long-term issuer credit rating to ‘BB-‘ from ‘BBB’, short-term issuer credit rating and commercial paper ratings to ‘B’ from ‘A-2’, and revised the outlook to ‘watch negative’ from ‘stable’. Subsequently on August 24, 2023, S&P further downgraded Hawaiian Electric’s long-term issuer credit rating to ‘B-‘ from ‘BB-‘ and reaffirmed outlook as ‘watch negative’. On August 18, 2023, Moody’s downgraded Hawaiian Electric’s issuer rating, including its senior unsecured notes to ‘Ba3’ from ‘Baa1’, preferred stock rating to ‘B3’ from ‘Baa3’, short-term commercial paper rating to ‘not prime’ from ‘prime-2’, and revised the outlook to ‘rating under review’ from ‘stable’. Subsequently on September 8, 2023, Moody’s revised the outlook to ‘review for downgrade’ from ‘rating under review’, and on December 18, 2023, Moody’s revised the outlook to ‘stable’ from ‘review for downgrade’. On August 21, 2023, Fitch downgraded Hawaiian Electric’s Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (“IDR”) to ‘B’ from ‘A-‘, short-term IDR to ‘B’ from ‘F2’, senior unsecured long-term debt to ‘B+’ from ‘A’, senior unsecured short-term debt to ‘B’ from ‘F2’, Hawaii Electric Light’s senior unsecured long-term debt to ‘BB-‘ from ‘A’, Maui Electric’s senior unsecured long-term debt to ‘B+’ from ‘A’, and revised the outlook to ‘watch negative’ from ‘stable’. In addition, Fitch assigned first-time long-term IDRs of ‘B’ to Hawaii Electric Light and Maui Electric.

¹ Fitch Ratings dated November 1, 2023
² Moody’s Credit Opinion dated December 29, 2023
³ S&P Global Ratings dated August 24, 2023

Please click the button below for historical data (in Excel format).

Credit Rating History

Hawaiian Electric’s current rating within each rating agency’s credit scale is reflected in the table below.

Credit ratings below B-/B3/B- and above D/C/D not included in above chart

Third-Party Generation Reported Metric

Metric: Total MWs of generation capacity and the percentage of third-party generation on system (measuring total MWs of generation provided by non-utility entities as a percentage of total generation)

Reporting Frequency: Quarterly

This metric measures the total MWs of generation capacity and calculates the percentage of generation capacity (both renewable and fossil fuel generation) provided by third-party independent power producers and indicates at a high level the ability of these producers to raise capital for their generation investments. The following metric measures total megawatts provided to the grid by non-utility entities, broken out by program as a percentage of total megawatts on the system. This metric comprises the following customer programs: Feed-in-Tariff (FIT), Net-Energy Metering (NEM), Customer Grid Supply (CGS), Customer Self Supply (CSS), Customer Grid Supply Plus (GSP), Smart Export (ISE), Net-Energy Metering Plus (NMP), Standard Interconnection Agreement Photovoltaic (SIA PV), Community Based Renewable Energy (CBRE), Standard Interconnection Agreement Non-Photovoltaic (SIA Non-PV), and Schedule Q.

Please click the button below for historical data (in Excel format).

Download Historical Data